


By your side

by DodiDream



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Friendship, Gen, It is mostly focused on the twins, Long lost twins AU, Roxas is a successful figure skater, figure skating AU, lots of bonding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 41,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22744357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DodiDream/pseuds/DodiDream
Summary: Ven had never thought too deeply about his origins, he was happy with his family and he never felt like something missed in his life just because he didn’t know who gave birth to him. He never thought about the possibility of having siblings somewhere. Not until he saw the blond guy identical to him on television.
Relationships: Roxas & Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 64
Kudos: 50





	1. Doppelganger

He was gliding on the ice rapidly gaining speed, when he faced forward and leaped into the air, doing three and a half revolution and landing gracefully on the ice. As soon as he landed the last jump of his program, he heard the audience cheering and clapping loudly. Now he could relax and try to sell the program during the step sequence, where every move fitted perfectly with the music. That was his favorite part. The audience was clapping at rhythm with the melody, accompanying him during his step sequence. As the music wrapped up, he stopped at the center of the arena bending into his ending position, kneeling with one hand on the ice, the other on the air.

For one long moment, which seemed to last forever, nobody moved and everything was silent.

Then came the applause and the rain of plushies that his fans were throwing in the ice for him. A smile lighted his features as he stood up and started bowing at the audience.

He did it. He was able to skate a full program without falling. The tension was over. Now he only needed to wait for his score and see how high he placed. He glided slowly out of the ice where his coach was waiting for him with a smile plastered on his face. He was satisfied with his student’s skate: years of training didn’t go to waste.

“You did great, Roxas!” the coach exclaimed patting the blond’s back, as he was putting on his skate guards. Roxas nodded without saying a word since he was still trying to catch his breath after the difficult program.

They went to sit in the Kiss and Cry area, to wait for the announcement of the score. Roxas waved shyly through the camera, and he heard once again a loud cheer coming from the audience, making him understand that they were satisfied with his performance. As soon as a male voice announced that the score was ready, everyone immediately shushed up.

When his score was announced, Roxas took some moments before processing what the announcer had just said. He heard the cheer of the audience and his coach Phil’s arms around his body before he was able to process what had just happened.

He couldn’t believe it.

He won the World Championships.

As soon as he realized this a smile softened his features and he waved shyly into the camera, mouthing ‘thank you’ towards the audience and everyone who was watching.

\---

The blond boy groaned loudly as he turned the pages of the book. He was not even paying attention to what he was reading anymore, he couldn’t make sense of the words and his head hurt.

“Ven, you’ve been on that book the whole day. You should take a break,” suggested a young woman with blue hair and the eyes of the same color, laying in front of him a plate with a slice of strawberry cake. The mere sight of it immediately lighted his mood: strawberry cake was his favorite type of cake; he was grateful that Aqua had baked it for him.

Ventus didn’t hesitate to take a break from studying to eat the cake. Aqua was the best at making sweets and she often spoiled him with the delicious things she baked. He would never understand how his older brother didn’t like desserts after having tried some of Aqua’s creations.

The blue-haired woman took a seat next to Ven, glancing curiously at the book that was open on the table in front of the blond. “What are you studying?”

“Anatomy. I have an exam next week,” mumbled the young man trying to focus on the nice taste on his mouth, instead of his university duties.

“You should call it a day for today. You’ve been studying for hours, you must be really tired,” a tall and muscular man intervened. Terra, Ven's older brother, was sitting on the couch lazily, zapping tv to see if there was anything interesting on.

“Terra is right,” agreed Aqua, who had just finished to eat her piece of strawberry cake and, after placing the empty plate in the kitchen’s sink, went to sit on the couch next to Terra.

He wanted to agree, to just drop the books for the evening and use the time for his family instead, but at the same time he was scared of failing his exam and he thought every minute was important to try and memorize something.

Maybe if he had started to study earlier, he wouldn’t be in this situation.

As soon as he finished to eat the cake, Ven decided that he had enough of studying so he closed the anatomy book and went to sit with Aqua and Terra on the couch. They had the habit to spend the Sundays together since during the rest of the week they were all busy with work or university.

Terra used the remote to change the channel, trying to find something they could watch together but, when he reached the Sports Channel, Ventus gasped lightly and placed his hand on top of Terra’s to stop him before he could change channel again.

“Who is that?” gasped the blond as he pointed at the TV screen. On TV there was the Victory Ceremony of the Figure Skating World Championships and standing on the podium, at the center, there was a young man who looked exactly like Ventus. The same spiky blond hair, the same blue eyes. The blond man on television was shaking hands with the officer who was handing him the gold medal. Ven posture stiffened as he watched a carbon copy of himself on TV, with a gold medal around his neck, standing at the center of the podium while his national anthem was played. He felt a sense of disorientation, the only thing he saw was his doppelganger on television and the only thing he could think of was: ‘who is that?’.

Aqua and Terra looked as surprised as he was. “He looks just like you!” exclaimed Terra at some point, turning to stare at Ven as if he needed to make sure that he was right beside him and not wherever the competition was being held.

He knew what all three of them were thinking, but none of them voiced their thoughts.

Could they be related somehow?

Ventus had been adopted when he was three years old by his father Eraqus and had been welcomed into his family. Terra, his older brother, had been adopted too by the old man and Ven had always looked up to him. Aqua was their best friend, she spent a lot of time at their house with them and Ven had come to consider her not only his best friend but his sister as well. He loved her as much as he loved Terra and his father. Unfortunately, their father had passed away a couple of years before so now there were only the three of them.

Ven had never thought too deeply about his birth family and his origins, he was happy with his family and he never felt like something missed in his life just because he didn’t know who gave birth to him. He never thought about the possibility of having siblings somewhere. Not until he saw the blond guy identical to him on television.

\---

That night Ven kept tossing and turning in his bed, he couldn’t find a comfortable position to fall asleep and, if he had to be honest, he was not even tired anymore, which was a weird occurrence for him. He couldn’t stop thinking about what happened that afternoon, who he saw on television. Could he and that guy be related somehow?

With a sigh, he decided to sit up, since he couldn’t fall asleep anyways. He took his phone, which was laying on his bedside table, and started to search the name of his look-alike, to try and find more information about him. On the official site of the International Skating Union, he found out that the blond’s name was Roxas and that he, as the other skaters, had a page where his information was listed. As he read the other guy's information, he felt his muscles becoming rigid and his posture stiffened.

It couldn’t be true, he couldn’t believe it. Roxas was born in Daybreak Town, just like him, and their birth date was the same.

_Can we be twins?_

That evening he had asked Terra if he knew something about any siblings, but Terra told him that if he had any biological sibling his father would have surely told him. But being there, in the middle of the night, searching for any kind of information about his possible twin brother made him feel nervous and at the same time excited. The idea of having someone who shared the same past as him, who was in the same situation as him.

He checked Roxas’ Wikipedia page, in hope of finding more information about him. He didn’t find much information about his personal life, but judging by the number of medals he seemed to have won across a few years he must have been a very talented skater.

In the end, he checked on Kingstagram, where he found Roxas’ account. He didn’t seem like a social network type of guy, he barely posted some pictures of himself, usually skating, but nothing that could help him understand what type of person Roxas could be. Ventus guessed he probably was a reserved person, or at least that he didn’t want to share with the rest of the world too many details about himself, being a public person. Ven started following him on Kingstagram and realized that he could send him a message through the social network. He stared blankly at the screen, wanting to say something to the other blond, to find out if they were related or not, but his mind blanked out and his hands were shaking. He was not the type of guy who was nervous about having to talk to someone, he usually was pretty outgoing, but now he was second-guessing himself. He was scared of freaking the other guy out and he was also scared of being completely wrong. What if they were not related? But he couldn’t know until he talked with Roxas. On the other websites there was no information about Roxas being adopted, but how many chances could have been of two guys who looked the same, who were born in the same city on the same day and not be related?

He took a deep breath and started typing something for the other guy. Ven typed, again and again, often correcting himself and rewriting some sentences. When he reread what he had just written he was tempted to delete everything. After a long breath, he decided to send the message, hoping that the other guy would read it and answer him.

After he pressed the ‘send’ button, he decided to try and get some sleep. The next day he would have to study all day, so with a sigh, he lied down on his bed again and tried to fall asleep.

\---

Days passed, Ven was studying hard for the anatomy exam he would have in a few days, but couldn’t help to check Kingstagram every day to see if Roxas had answered his message.

The other guy hadn’t answered yet, Ventus realized with a deep sigh.

“Nothing yet?” asked Terra who was observing his younger brother's behavior with attention. Ven just shook his head, without raising his gaze from the phone screen. When he had told Terra and Aqua that he decided to write to his possible twin to get to know him better, they both had been supportive of him, hoping that the other guy would respond to his message. “He is an athlete, after all; maybe his fans write him a lot of messages and he didn’t notice yours. If he keeps not answering, try to write to him again,” suggested the brown-haired man as he ruffled his head, trying to comfort him. Truth was, Ven was not even sure Roxas had checked his Kingstagram at all. Despite his big win, he hadn’t bothered to post anything about it and his last post dated back two months before.

He hoped Roxas would answer him soon. During the times of break from studying, he checked all the other guy’s videos, his skating programs, his interviews. Roxas seemed to be a quiet person, maybe a little bit shy. He came out to him as if he always felt a little embarrassed during interviews and press conferences as if he didn’t fully know what he was supposed to say but he seemed like a good guy. Ven felt a bit like a stalker, trying to find as much information as possible about some guy he didn’t even know, but he really wanted to know him better. With another sigh, he resigned to stop staring at his phone screen and he went back to study, hoping that Roxas would answer him sooner or later.

\---

He observed as the brown-haired guy took one stroke after another, slowly gaining speed and soon he saw him leap into the air to do a four revolution jump and landing gracefully on the ice. As soon as the other came close to the rail, the blond started to skate and, as soon as he gained enough speed, he attempted the same jump that the other young man had just landed. He managed to do four revolutions on air, but his landing was a bit shaky so he fell into the ice. He heard the other guy’s laugh echoing through the rink, as he came closer and lent a helping hand to Roxas, who accepted it to go back on his feet.

“That was not too bad!” laughed the brown-haired guy sincerely as they slowly glided out of the ice. “But I won.”

“Tomorrow I will land it,” promised the blond, following him out of the rink. They had the habit of always competing against each other even when they were training. If he saw Sora doing a jump, then he needed to do the same jump as well or vice versa. None of them wanted to let the other person win, but it was all in good fun. They were good friends, which was weird for two athletes who always competed against each other at every competition. There was once a time where Roxas considered Sora his biggest rival, but since when they started training together, he realized that it was impossible to despise him. So, even though they technically competed against each other, they both always cheered for the other to do well. At the World Championships, where Roxas placed first and Sora took the silver, the brown-haired guy was the first one to congratulate him for his win and tell everyone how great Roxas had been and how much he deserved that win. He was lucky for having him in his life.

\---

Roxas was tired, after spending the whole day practicing, he looked forward to some good rest. He was already in his bed when he felt a vibration coming from somewhere under the covers of his bed. He looked around frantically trying to find his phone. When he found it, he noticed that he had received a notification from Kingstagram. Sora had posted a picture of the two of them and had tagged him on his post. After he liked the picture, Roxas started scrolling boringly through the screen, wanting to see if his other friends had posted anything interesting. After he was done scrolling, he checked his private messages.

A lot of skating fans wrote to him on social networks to congratulate him for his win at the latest competition, he started to read some of the messages that people had sent him. There was some hateful message, but most of them were nice. Some of his fans used one of his photos as their profile picture, so when he saw that that person had him as their profile picture, he didn’t think much of it.

Until he read the message.

_Hey Roxas! We don’t know each other, my name is Ventus, but everyone calls me Ven!_

_I know this may seem really weird, but the other day I was watching TV when the Figure Skating World Championships went on and I saw you for the first time. When I saw you, I couldn’t believe my eyes because we look the same. And when I say the same, I mean EXACTLY THE SAME. I don’t want to freak you out, but I would like to ask you if you were adopted? I was adopted and I was born at the Children’s light Hospital in Daybreak Town. I saw from your Kingstagram bio that we were born on the same day. Please let me know, I would like to get to know you better!_

_Ven_

At first, the blond had to double-check, because he wasn’t sure of what he had just read.

_Who is this?_

When he clicked on the other person’s profile, he realized that that person – he said his name was Ventus – didn’t have Roxas’ photo as his profile picture but his own photo. And all his other pictures looked like him as well!

At first, it creeped Roxas out, the thought of having someone who looked exactly like him walking around on another part of the world. Then he realized why Ventus had sent him that message. His heart started beating fast. His parents never told him that he had any siblings, so that was really weird for him. He looked at his phone screen for a long minute, pondering about what he should do. A part of him was screaming at him to answer the message because it might be his long-lost twin, the other part was afraid that it could have been someone trying to find an excuse to get to know him. But no one could have something like this, the pictures on Ventus’ profile were not Roxas’, they were Ven’s. There is no way he could have lied about it.

He went downstairs where he found his mom watching a movie on the TV. He would normally spend the evening with her, but he felt exhausted so that night he decided to go to his room instead.

“Mom?” Roxas called, not even caring that he was interrupting the movie his mom was watching. When his mom returned his gaze, showing him that she was listening, he continued, “do you happen to know if I have any siblings?”

The woman was not even surprised by the question, used to her son being curious about his life before adoption and asking her lots of questions about it since when he was a child. “Not that I know of, but we don’t know much about your birth family so there may be siblings we don’t know about,” explained his mother sincerely.

Roxas stayed silent, staring blankly at the wall pondering the situation.

“Is there something wrong?” asked his mother in the end, when she realized that there was something that was bothering her son.

Roxas sat beside his mother on the couch. “Someone messaged me on Kingstagram…” he said showing his mother the message Ventus had sent him. The black-haired woman read the message with attention, then Roxas showed her Ven’s pictures. She looked as surprised as he was when he first read the message, not long ago.

“Do you think he might be your twin brother?”

They looked the same and they were born in the same hospital on the same day. How many chances could have been of them not being related? Roxas stared at the other boy’s pictures, hesitating for a moment, then he slowly nodded his head.

“Yeah, I think so.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I've started to write this story because I feel like there is a need for more content about Roxas and Ven together. This story is partly inspired by the documentary film "Twinsters" which is really good and you should definitely watch it if you haven't already :)


	2. An instant connection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ven and Roxas have their first conversation with each other.

“Roxas? Are you even listening?” A raven-haired girl waved a hand in front of her best friend’s face. “Earth to Roxas!” she almost screamed in his ear, causing him to wince.

Roxas was sitting in a table at their favorite coffee shop, with his two best friends, Xion and Naminé. They had the habit to meet there for breakfast at least once a week since it was becoming harder and harder to find the time to see each other considering they all had different schedules.

“Uh? Yeah, I was listening, Xion.”

“Oh really? What were we talking about then?” Xion asked with a smile on her face, knowing fully well that the blond hadn’t listened to a word. The blonde girl seated beside her giggled, hiding her mouth with her hand.

“…Sorry,” came Roxas’ lame response. It was useless trying to lie to them, they could read him like an open book.

“No need to apologize, Rox. But you’ve been on your phone for the whole time, that’s weird coming from you,” Naminé observed, gaining nods of approval from Xion.

“Yeah! Did something happen?” Xion’s smile morphed to a worried glance, genuinely concerned for her friend. Roxas was quick to shook his head and reassure them that everything was fine.

“No, I mean… actually, something did happen.” Xion and Naminé both raised their eyes to look at him. “The other day, someone messaged me on Kingstagram,” Roxas said vaguely, interrupting his story to take a sip of coffee.

“Did they write something mean?” questioned Naminé, knowing well how much Roxas was affected by mean comments, even if he usually didn’t like to talk about it.

The young man shook his head no. “No, nothing like that. Someone wrote to me and he looks like me… he looks a lot like me and he was born in Daybreak Town too… in the same hospital as me, the same day I was born,” Roxas started to ramble to explain to his friends the situation, looking frantically into his phone for something. “Here, this is his account,” he said handing Naminé his phone. Xion immediately moved closer to her with her chair to take a look too.

“Whoa, he really looks like you!” Xion exclaimed, while Naminé was scrolling across the screen to see more pictures.

“He really does,” the blonde girl agreed. “What did he write to you?” she questioned, handing Roxas his phone back.

“He told me that we are born the same day in the same place and that he was adopted, and he asked me if I was adopted too,” explained the blond, playing distractedly with the rings on his fingers. “I think he believes we may be related somehow.”

“Well, don’t you?” questioned Xion, after taking a sip of the hot chocolate she ordered. “I mean, what are the odds?” she asked to Naminé, who nodded in response, while Roxas seemed to find his empty coffee mug particularly interesting.

“Roxas, that’s amazing! You always wanted to know more about your biological family, Ventus may really be your brother! Did you answer his message?”

“Not yet.”

“What are you waiting for?”

“I don’t know, this is all so sudden!” exclaimed Roxas frustrated, massaging his temples with his hands. “What if he thinks I’m weird and ends up hating me?”

“I think you are weird but you’re still my best friend!”

“Xion!”

\---

Ventus was feeling exhausted. He had just finished the anatomy exam he had studied for weeks for and his head was threatening to explode. He couldn’t wait to get home and take a good nap.

He was sitting on the bus, on his way home, with his head leaning on the window looking distractedly at the outside view. He felt his eyelids slowly leaning down when a vibration coming from his pocket pulled him out of his drowsiness. With a groan he grabbed his phone, guessing it was Terra telling him to go buy something before coming home, but when the phone screen lightened and he saw who wrote to him his eyes widened. He was completely awake now.

Roxas had finally answered his message. For the last week, he had been nervous about the possibility that Roxas saw his message and was intentionally ignoring him, but in the end he answered. Ventus didn’t hesitate to press on the message to see what the other had answered.

\---

“He’s adopted as well,” Ventus said out of the blue while he was laying the table for dinner. Terra and Aqua exchanged a confused glance from across the room and then turned towards their younger brother.

“Did Roxas answer?” asked Aqua wearing a smile on her face, catching up in what Ventus was trying to say.

Ventus nodded. “Yes, he’s adopted as well,” he repeated, his eyes focused on the table as he was checking he laid everything they needed for dinner.

Terra and Aqua exchanged another worried look, then Terra walked towards his brother and put a hand on his shoulders causing Ventus to look up at him.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” They hadn’t talked about it yet. Terra and Aqua had supported Ventus in his choice of contacting Roxas without a second thought. Ven seemed genuinely thrilled about the other guy and had spent the last week talking to them about every bit of information about Roxas he could find. They knew that finding someone from his biological family was a big deal for Ventus but also something they were not sure he would be ready for since, until that moment, he had always refused to know anything about his biological parents and his past.

“It’s strange…” the blond explained vaguely, “on one side I’m excited to get to know him, on the other… I want him to like me but I’m scared of messing everything up.” Although Ventus was excited about the idea of possibly having a twin brother, he was also nervous about the chance that the two of them would not get along. Despite his cheerful and kind attitude, he didn’t have many people he felt close with and he didn’t think he was very likable. Roxas seemed way too cool for him.

“I know, this is all very new and sudden. But take it a step at a time, okay? There is no need to rush anything,” Aqua said, walking up to them with a soft and reassuring smile on her face. “I bet he’ll end up loving you, everyone does,” she added caressing his cheek.

_Eh, not really_ \- Ventus bit the inside of his cheek to avoid saying out loud his thought, knowing that Terra and Aqua would be upset to hear him talk about himself like that, and instead forced a smile and nodded with uncertainty.

“Aqua is right. Besides you won’t be alone in this journey, Aqua and I will always be by your side,” added Terra ruffling his hair, a gesture he used to do since as long as Ven could remember. He nodded again, pulling the other two in a tight embrace, not able to put into words how thankful he felt to have them by his side.

\---

The blond glanced nervously at the time from his phone. Roxas and he had agreed that it would be easier to get to know each other through video chat than only with messages, at least until they would be able to physically meet each other. He was thrilled about finally having the chance to talk face to face with the other guy.

Distracted by his thoughts, he jolted when he heard his phone ringing full volume and Roxas’ contact popped up on the screen, signaling that the other was calling him. Ven took a deep breath before answering the call. As soon as he did it, he saw on the screen the face of another blond boy identical to him.

“Hey,” greeted his mirror image, with a small smile on his face and a small wave.

“Hey,” answered Ven. It followed an awkward silence while the two were looking at each other as if they were studying the other person. Ven smiled nervously, unsure of what was the best way to start a conversation with his doppelganger.

“We do look alike!” Roxas declared after a few seconds. Ventus couldn’t help but laugh at the excited tone of the other blond and Roxas soon joined him. Even their laugh sounded the same.

“It’s so strange,” Ventus affirmed, “we even have the same haircut!”

“Yeah, well clearly we’ve got taste!” Ven chuckled at the affirmation, Roxas joined him soon after. “So… how did you find me?” Roxas inquired when they both calmed down.

“It happened pretty randomly actually,” explained Ventus getting serious again. “My siblings and I wanted to watch something on TV together, and when my brother was zapping through channels, I caught a glimpse of you. I was freaking out at first, I was like ‘why is this guy identical to me?’” Ventus tried to convey with his voice the way he was feeling when he first saw the other, causing Roxas to smile. “Then when I saw that we had a lot of things in common, I started to think that we could be related somehow so I decided to try to contact you.”

Roxas nodded in understanding. “When I saw your message on Kingstagram I thought you were a fan account at first,” Roxas explained while he was adjusting his position on his bed, trying to lay on his stomach, “then when I clicked on your profile I realized it was you, not me.”

“Did I freak you out with my message?” Ventus was curious to know. Roxas had taken some days before answering his message, during those days Ven had thought of all kind of reason the other could have to not answer him.

“A little bit. It was… unexpected and I didn’t really know what to say.”

Ventus stayed silent, nodding empathetically since he completely understood the way his doppelganger felt when he saw his message.

“Do you know anything about your biological family?”

Ventus shook his head. “Nothing. I asked my brother, but he told me that he doesn’t know anything about who my parents are or if I have any siblings.”

“Same,” Roxas said with a thoughtful look on his face. “Maybe our adoption agencies know something more… we can try to contact them and see if we find out anything.” Ven could only agree with him.

An awkward silence fell between them again. Ven could think of a thousand questions he wanted to ask the other guy, but he wasn’t sure where to start or if it would be okay to ask them. They hadn’t talked much over messages, both immediately agreeing that it would be easier to just talk with each other face to face, and he wasn’t sure if the other was actually interested to get to know him better and see how their relationship would evolve or if he had agreed to this just out of obligation towards him since there was a serious possibility they were related.

“So…” Roxas started, playing distractedly with the rings on his fingers, “you said you have siblings?” Ventus features were immediately lighted by a smile, pleased by the question and by the fact that he knew that the other at least wanted to try to get to know him too.

“Yes! Their names are Terra and Aqua,” Ven explained excitedly. Then he seemed to rethink about it. “Well… technically Terra is my older brother, while Aqua is our best friend, but we spend so much time together that she’s basically my sister as well!” Ven explained, unable to hold back his smile.

Roxas was listening carefully. “By your tone, I guess you are close with them,” he stated with a smile.

“We are!” Ventus agreed. “What about you? Do you have any siblings?”

Roxas shook his head. “No, there’s only me.” Ventus couldn’t imagine life as an only child. He couldn’t remember a time where Terra and Aqua had not been there for him, but he guessed he would have felt lonely without the two of them by his side. “Luckily I have lots of friends, so I don’t get too lonely,” Roxas added with a smile.

“That’s good,” said Ventus with a laugh, then he tried to think about what he could ask the other guy, but Roxas preceded him again.

“What do you do in life?”

“I’m in university! I’m studying to become a physiotherapist!”

“Wow, that’s cool!” said Roxas looking genuinely impressed, “there is a reason why you chose that faculty over others?”

“Well, a few years ago I had to go to a physiotherapist for the rehabilitation after getting an injury in dance class. I’ve been fascinated by that profession ever since! Besides, I’ve always wanted to find a job with which I would be able to help people. Okay, my turn now!” he exclaimed before Roxas could ask him another question, then took some moments to think about what to ask first. “So… how did you end up as a figure skater?”

Roxas took a few moments to reflect on the question. “I don’t really remember, but my mom told me that she took me ice skating once and one coach was there that day and saw me… apparently, he thought I was good and convinced my parents to sign me up on figure skating lessons.”

“Judging by where you are now, he was not wrong!”

“Yeah. I’m thankful for it now, but when I was a child I was not really happy about it. They wanted me to compete and win competitions, but honestly, at the time I couldn’t care less. I just did it to make my parents happy,” Roxas confessed as he gave a half-smile.

“Oh? What changed?”

“When my mom noticed that I was not happy about it, she told me that I could quit if I wanted. And I did quit it for a short time, but then I started missing it so I decided to come back. Now I’m happier with my skating because I know it is my decision. I’m not sure if it makes sense,” Roxas explained.

“It does,” Ventus reassured with a smile. “I never figure skated myself but it looks like a cool sport.”

“It is! I can teach you how to skate when we meet if you’d like,” Roxas said with a small smile on his face. They hadn’t talked about any possible meeting yet, but Ventus felt happy about the implication that Roxas wanted to actually meet him in person.

“That would be cool!” smiled Ven.

When they ended the call, Ven had a smile plastered on his face and felt happy. In the end, their first real conversation went way better than he had anticipated. As soon as they both got over the initial awkwardness the conversation went on feeling more and more natural and, in the end, they stayed talking on the phone for almost two hours and ended the call with the promise of doing another one as soon as they both had the time. They found out they had in common a lot of things: they both hated asparagus, their favorite videogame series was Kingdom Hearts and they both loved Disney movies. Both of them did badly in art at school and didn’t like math. Ven found it weird how he could have met someone only a few days before and already felt so connected with him. He was already looking forward to the next time Roxas and he could video chat.


	3. A difficult day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roxas and Ven keep getting closer and Roxas receives some news from the social worker who is helping them find information about their biological family

Ven kept tossing and turning in his bed, unable to get some sleep. He couldn’t find comfort in any positions he tried to set in and he felt a tug on his heart. He glanced nervously at the phone resting on his bedside table. He really wanted to talk to someone about anything, he just wanted to distract himself from the nightmares that wouldn’t let him sleep. 

The blond had always had nightmares, since when he was a child. When he was younger, he used to wake up almost every night screaming and crying and his dad or his brother would always come to his bedside to try and make him feel better. Now the nightmares didn’t happen as often as they did when he was a child, but he would still wake up feeling his heart in his throat, distressed and unable to get back to sleep.

Ven grabbed his phone and glanced at the hour.

2:44 AM

Ven let out a sigh. It was still late in the night; he couldn’t get up but he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep either. He glanced around his room, lightened by the lamp that was on his bedside table, trying to find something to do. He listed mentally all the possibilities: reading a book? He didn’t feel like it. Studying? That wasn’t even an option. Playing videogames? That could be a possibility, but he wasn’t completely into the idea.

He then directed his attention to the phone again. Without noticing he found himself staring at Roxas’ contact on his phone. Ven didn’t know what to do, on one side he wanted to talk with his friend but, on the other side, he knew that it was late for the other as well, and he didn’t want to wake him up. They had been talking for about three months by then and, even if it wasn’t that much time, he already felt close to the other guy. Ven pondered the situation: sure, they had been talking almost every day and they had grown quite close to each other, but he wasn’t sure Roxas would appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night. 

_Probably not_ , realized Ventus with another sigh, _but checking if he’s awake with a message can’t be bad, right?_

So, he wrote a quick message that soon was sent to the other guy. Not even a minute passed when his phone’s screen lightened and showed the picture he had set up for Roxas (stolen from his Kingstagram), which indicated that the other was calling him. Luckily, he had the habit to silence his phone before going to sleep, or Terra would have woken up for sure.

Ven was surprised and relieved at the same time, and didn’t hesitate to answer the phone.

“Hello?” he answered with a whisper, as soon as he saw Roxas on the other side of the screen. The light was kind of dark, but he could tell that Roxas was in his bed, his hair was a mess and he could see from the look on his eyes that he was tired. Roxas answered at his greeting waving tiredly at the screen. “Did I wake you up?” Ven would feel bad if that was the case, Roxas looked exhausted.

Roxas shook his head “No, I was awake,” he said after a yawn.

“Why were you awake? It’s late,” said Ventus looking worriedly at his twin. “You should get some rest!” Ventus was trying his best to not talk too loudly, not wanting to wake up his brother.

“You were the one who wrote me a message in the middle of the night!” Roxas retorted, talking louder than intended and covering his mouth as soon as he finished talking. Ven couldn’t deny it, Roxas had a point. Then Roxas’s features softened, looking genuinely worried at his friend. “Are you okay?”

Ven scratched the back of his head forcing a smile. “Yeah. I just couldn’t sleep, that’s all,” lied Ventus, avoiding the other’s gaze. He didn’t want to lie to Roxas, but he felt guilty about keeping him awake this late, seeing how tired the other was.

“Are you sure? You look sad,” noted Roxas, looking at him with a serious expression on his face. “If something happened, you could tell me,” reassured the blond with a small smile, that Ven returned.

“Yeah… nothing serious happened, I just had a nightmare and couldn’t sleep,” Ventus decided to explain with sincerity.

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

Ventus shook his head, “I don’t remember what happened in the nightmare. It is always like this, I wake up feeling really sad or scared but I can never remember what I dreamed,” he explained. “Does it ever happen to you?”

“Not really,” Roxas shook his head, thinking more deeply about the question. “Well, there was a time where I used to wake up in the morning with tears in my eyes, but I didn’t remember what I dreamed during the night.” 

Ven nodded in understanding.

“Does it happen often? That you have nightmares?” asked Roxas, looking at him in the eyes. 

“Sometimes…” answered Ventus quietly. “Why were you awake instead?” Ventus wanted to change the topic, he didn’t feel like talking about his nightmares, he just wanted to get distracted and talk with Roxas. Luckily the other blond seemed to get his intentions and didn’t ask any other questions.

Roxas glanced somewhere off the screen and turned his phone to show Ven his laptop. “I was doing a university assignment,” he tried to rapidly show Ven what he had written on his document.

“At three in the morning?” exclaimed Ven shocked, trying his best to maintain his voice tone low enough to not wake Terra up. “When are you going to sleep?”.

“I thought I would have get it done faster,” explained Roxas, after having turned the phone again to show his face, “but it’s harder than I expected. And it’s due tomorrow,” he explained with a sigh.

Well, then Ventus was not the only one who used to procrastinate.

“What do you need to do? Maybe I can help.”

“Really?” Roxas’ eyes widened. Ventus nodded. “That would be great."

\---

In the end, they stayed on the phone for nearly three hours working on Roxas’ assignment but mostly getting distracted by each other and starting to talk about random stuff. It turned out that Ven was not really able to help him with his assignment, but he still tried to help, offering him emotional support and encouraging him to get it done. Roxas was not proud at all of what he had written, but decided to send it to his professor anyways, hoping he would at least appreciate the effort.

He had fun talking with Ven for the whole night, but he was feeling exhausted for lack of sleep. He only had about an hour to sleep before having to get up to get himself ready for training. The thought made him grimace, he really wasn’t feeling like it that morning and briefly wondered if Phil would get mad at him if he skipped a day.

He sighed, thinking that he would need to rework on his time management abilities and probably get a better sleep schedule. 

“Hi, Rox!” Sora ran towards him as soon as he saw him on the distance. “Are you okay? You look like a mess.” 

“Good morning to you too, Sora,” Roxas answered, not even trying to hide the bad mood he had from lack of sleep.

“Rough night?”

“Is it that noticeable?” Roxas asked looking worriedly at Sora and sighed when the other guy nodded. He tried his best to look presentable that morning, since he knew Phil wouldn’t be happy to see him be sleep-deprived, especially considering that wouldn’t be his first time. When he had started training with Phil, his coach gave him three simple rules: eat, sleep, train. He was surprised to say the least when he first heard them, since his previous coach didn’t care at all about his health and just wanted him to train as if there was no tomorrow, it didn’t matter if he was sick or even injured. 

While Roxas was a hard worker and he had mostly healthy eating habits, his sleep schedule was a mess and it wasn’t the first time Phil would reprimand him for his lack of sleep. Despite his rough demeanor, he knew Phil was doing this because he cared about his health and he was thankful for it.

“You need to sleep more, Roxas.” Great. Now even Sora was admonishing him. Was he really looking that bad? 

“I needed to finish an assignment for university,” Roxas justified himself as they were walking towards the locker room so they could get ready for their training session, “then Ven contacted me and we ended up talking for the whole night. He helped me get it done though,” he explained, smiling at the memory.

Sora nodded. “You two are getting really close!” he noted smiling brightly. Roxas nodded in agreement when his phone started buzzing in his pocket. He checked his phone to see who was calling him and he let out a small gasp when he saw the name of his social worker. After the first time Ven and he had talked, about three months before, they both had tried to contact their adoption agencies to try to find any information about their past, without any result. They told him they would contact him if they found out anything about his biological family, but the more days passed without any news the more he was starting giving up hope of ever finding something about his biological family. That was why seeing the name of the social worker calling him was a surprise. He excused himself from Sora and went to a more secluded area to have some privacy before answering the phone.

“Hello, Roxas,” came the soft voice of his social worker, “I have some news.” The blond boy unknowingly held up a breath. “I was able to find and contact your biological mother.”

His heart started speeding up in his chest at the thought of his biological mother; even if he didn’t remember anything about her, he had been wondering about her for years. He was curious to know what she looked like, if he resembled her in any way. He was curious to know what type of person she was. But what he desired the most was knowing why she decided to give him up for adoption.

“And?” he urged, wanting to find out what his birth mom had to say, if there was any possibility of meeting her because there were a million questions he wanted to ask.

“I’m sorry, Roxas. She refused to have any contact.” As soon as he heard those words his heart stopped beating. For a moment the whole world around him seemed to stop and he let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. Soon the world started going on again and his heart started beating again, but the hurt that he felt in his heart didn’t stop.

“Oh…” was the only thing he could say, while his social worker apologized again as if it was her fault that his mother didn’t want to have anything to do with him. “Did she tell you if she had twins or not at least?” he asked quietly, hoping he could have an answer to at least that question since that was also the reason why he decided to find his biological parents to begin with.

“No, she refused to answer any question. She was adamant to say that she never had any children, but the papers don’t lie,” The social worker explained. “I’m sorry Roxas, she’s probably not ready yet. If you want, I can give her your contact so, when and if she will be ready, she will be able to contact you.”

“Okay,” he answered mechanically before even processing what she had told him. Unfortunately for him, the law protected the anonymity of biological parents of adoptive children, so he had no idea who his biological mother was and couldn’t hope of finding some information on his own.

When he entered the dressing room, Sora had already put on his training gear and his skates. The brunette didn’t miss the troubled expression on Roxas’ face and the smile that he had when he entered turned into a worried glance within seconds.

Sora followed him with his gaze as Roxas sat down next to him and opened his bag to pick up his skates. He waited for a few minutes, waiting for Roxas to say something but the other seemed adamant to keep ignoring him.

“Did something happen?” Sora asked in the end looking at him worriedly. Roxas stopped in his track and turned towards Sora to look at him briefly. He tried to master the most convincing smile he could and shook his head. It didn’t help the fact that Roxas was a horrible liar and Sora was particularly good at reading him, so it didn’t surprise him to see Sora’s glance not change at all and only looking more worried than before.

He didn’t want to lie to Sora since he was one of the best friends he could ask for and had always been super supportive of him, despite knowing each other for a relatively short time and not starting their relationship in the best terms. At the same time, he didn’t feel like talking about what had happened yet since he himself hadn’t fully processed what his social worker had said to him. 

His mom had always been supportive of his search for his biological family but had always also warned him to be ready for a refusal since it could always have been a possibility. And Roxas thought he was ready for it, in some way he expected it, but it hurt nonetheless. He felt like he was not wanted by the same person who gave birth to him. At that moment he just wanted to call his mother and for her to reassure him like she did when he was little. At the same time, he also wanted to talk with Ven, because he was the only person who would be able to understand what he was feeling at that moment. The thought of his twin also made his heart hurt even more because it made him realize that he would have to be the one telling Ventus the truth and he knew that the truth would hurt him and he didn’t want that.

In their numerous video calls, they had talked multiple times about their search for their biological family. While Roxas had always been curious about their birth family, to know who his biological parents were and what was the reason that had brought them to leave him, Ventus was the opposite. He knew he was adopted, and sometimes he wondered about his birth family, but he never really asked his dad or his older brother about it. He was content with where he was living so he didn’t really care about it. He confessed to Roxas that he was scared to know the answers to his questions. He wanted to keep thinking that his birth parents left him at the hospital after his birth out of love, and didn’t want to consider the other options, and that was the exact reason why Roxas was worried about having to tell Ventus what the social worker had told him.

Roxas was lost in his thoughts when Sora’s arm wrapped around him and brought him back to reality. Sora was holding him tightly; his right hand was gently massaging his back in an attempt to comfort him. Roxas didn’t hesitate to return the hug and to rest his head on Sora’s shoulder, wanting to hide the tears that without him noticing started to fall from his eyes.

“You don’t need to tell me anything if you don’t want to, but I’m always here if you need to talk to someone,” said Sora softly, continuing to hug him tightly. The brunette always knew what to do or say to make someone feel better. The blond wished he could have the same ability since he already knew Ven wouldn’t take it well when he would hear the news.

\---

The blond had a bad feeling since when he received Roxas’ message that morning while he was in class.

_‘Hey. When you have time can you call me? It’s important.’_ Ven didn’t know what to think when he first read that message, but every possible thought that came to mind was not good. Roxas and he had talked all night and everything seemed okay during their call. What could have happened in a few hours that they needed to discuss as soon as possible?

When Ventus noticed that he has spent the last ten minutes thinking about what Roxas wanted to talk about and that the voice of his professor had become only a distant sound in the background, he decided to leave. There was no use in staying in class if he was not going to listen to the lesson. He collected his book and his laptop, being careful not to make any noise to not disturb the other students, and quietly exited the room. He didn’t miss the irritate look his professor gave him, but thankfully he decided to not stop him and humiliate him in front of all the other students that were attending his lecture.

His university was fifty minutes away from his house if he used the bus to go home like he usually did, but he didn’t want to wait for so long to call Roxas. Not knowing what the other wanted to talk to him about was killing him and he didn’t have a good feeling about it. He opted to find a quiet place where the least amount of people would be around, to have some privacy, so he sat on a bench in a playground near his university. In the morning it was usually desert since children were at school.

It took some rings for Roxas to answer the phone, the waiting was unnerving Ventus even more, but he figured that the other wasn’t expecting him to call him this soon since he knew he would be in class in the morning.

“Hey Ven,” came at last Roxas’ voice from the other end of the call. Ven could already feel from his voice the nervousness the other was feeling, even if he was unable to see him.

“Hey. Are you okay?” asked Ven immediately, wanting to put his worries to an end.

“I’m fine,” said Roxas quietly, but Ventus could tell that there was something wrong in his voice. He sounded sad. “Did the lecture end early?” he questioned.

“I left class early because I wanted to call you as soon as possible.”

“Oh,” he sounded surprised. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want you to miss class.”

“You are more important,” Ventus said sincerely without missing a beat. “What did you want to talk about?” he asked, not wanting to beat around the bush for too long, even if he could tell the other was trying to take as long as possible to tell him whatever he wanted to tell him.

It took some moments for Roxas to answer, Ven could hear from his phone the other’s nervous breaths and some people talking in the background, even if he couldn’t make out what they were saying. He figured Roxas was not at home either.

“Did you find out anything?” asked Roxas suddenly. It took some moments for Ventus to understand what the other was referring to since it had passed some time since the last time they had talked about it.

“Nothing yet,” he said simply; he had asked a social worker how he could find his biological parents but he hadn’t found out anything yet. “Did you?” he asked, even if he already knew the answer.

“Yes. My social worker was able to contact our… my mother.” Ven held his breath when he heard the last word. It was strange for him to process the thought that his mother was someone that existed for real. His heart started beating even faster than it was before and he could feel the hand that was holding his phone trembling slightly. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what their mother had to say, he wasn’t sure he was ready to handle the truth. He mentally cursed himself for not having waited to go home before calling Roxas, at least Terra and Aqua would be there with him.

“Ven? Are you okay?” Roxas’ voice brought him back to reality. He must have been silent for a while because the other’s voice sounded really worried.

“Yes,” reassured Ven, a little too quickly to sound genuine. “What did she say?” he asked, prompting his twin to go on with his story.

“She refused to answer any question.” That was disappointing, thought Ven. “Actually, she denied having any children…” When he heard the last sentence, it was like an arrow went straight through his heart. An immediate sense of rejection wrapped around him. He felt his eyes becoming watery, and he didn’t even try to stop the tears that started to run on his cheeks.

He briefly wondered if he had never wanted to know anything about his birth family because he knew in his heart that he was going to get a rejection. His mother’s response didn’t surprise him as much as he thought it would, but it hurt nonetheless. 

“I’m sorry, Ven.” Ventus wasn’t sure why the other was apologizing to him since it wasn’t his fault. If anything, Roxas should have been the more distraught of the two since it was Roxas’ mother they were talking about. They didn’t even know if they were related yet, so he wasn’t even sure if she was Ven’s mother as well. 

Ventus tried to dry his tears with his sleeve and he took a few deep breaths to calm himself. “Don’t be. How are you feeling?” he asked instead, not wanting to be the reason why Roxas was holding back his emotions.

“I’m… fine,” he said unsurely after a few moments of silence. “I was expecting it, honestly,” he said with sincerity, even if his voice sounded distraught and Ven suspected that the other was crying as well. “I just didn’t expect it to hurt that much,” he added quietly after a few moments of silence. Ven knew exactly what the other was feeling since he was feeling the same way in that exact moment. 

“Maybe she is not ready yet to start to have contacts with us?” Ventus assumed, trying to stay hopeful for both of them.

“Maybe,” conceded Roxas.

“Maybe when she will be ready she will be the one trying to find us and we’ll be able to meet her and ask her all the questions we have,” he added, smiling faintly, not wanting to lose hope.

“Yes, maybe you’re right...” the other blond agreed again, even if from his voice tone Ven could tell that he didn’t really believe that.

They stayed in line with each other for a few minutes, none of them saying anything and only staying there listening to the other’s breath. Ven wished he could do more to make the other feel better. Never until that moment he had hated so much the fact that he could only talk to Roxas with his phone. He hated the distance that was separating them, he wanted to have Roxas right next to him and he wanted to be able to hug him and reassure him.

“You know,” said Ventus breaking the silence, “I would really like to meet you. In-person, I mean.” They had never explicitly talked about a possible meeting yet, but Ven felt like he couldn’t wait anymore. He wanted to meet Roxas, he wanted to be able to hug him, he wanted to create memories with him. 

Roxas didn’t answer immediately, and since Ventus couldn’t see him, he was scared he had said something wrong, maybe that wasn’t the right time to talk about that. He was about to take everything back when the other guy finally answered.

“Next month we will have an ice show in Twilight Town. I’d like you to come, I think you will like it. You can stay at my house! There are lots of things we can do there, I can show you the town and I can introduce you to my friends! I wonder if they will be able to tell us apart.”

“Yes! We can switch clothes and trick everyone!” suggested Ven, a smile finally cracking on his face.

“Yeah! Wait, does that mean you’re coming?” He could finally hear a smile from the other and that was everything Ventus really wanted at the moment.

“I’m already looking for the tickets.”


	4. Finally together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ven goes to Twilight Town and finally meets Roxas

Ven found it bizarre how he came to care so deeply about someone he technically didn’t even meet yet, but it was exactly what had happened. He felt he loved Roxas unconditionally, he missed him but, at the same time, he wondered if it was possible to miss someone he hadn’t even properly met yet.

Every day he looked forward to chatting with Roxas and, when they both had the time, they always video called each other and spent at least an hour together talking about anything. The thought that in a few hours he would be there with him for real made him feel a rush of excitement. After months where they were able to see each other only through a screen, it was surreal to think that they could finally meet face to face. That they would be finally able to hug each other and to actually spend time together.

The plan was simple. That week Roxas was in Twilight Town to join an ice show that would take place there. He wanted to take advantage of the situation to spend a week of vacation there since it was his hometown and he didn’t get to spend much time there since he moved to Radiant Garden to train with Phil. He was happy to invite Ven in Twilight Town because he wanted to show him the place where he grew up, let him meet his friends, and, most of all, get to finally spend time together and get to know each other properly. They talked about everything in their video calls, but they hadn’t been able to create actual memories with each other yet and that was what they were looking forward to the most.

Ventus woke up early that morning, to the surprise of Terra who was much more of an early bird than Ven was. But Ventus couldn’t help it, he was too excited to be able to sleep. The previous night he hadn’t been able to rest properly because he kept playing in his head the possible scenarios that would play out the next day.

He often wondered how their first meeting would be. He liked to think that they would immediately hug each other as if they’ve known each other forever, but maybe it was unrealistic to think that it would go that way. Ven assumed that it would be more probable if they just shook hands as two people who just met each other would. He especially hoped that their meeting wouldn’t be a complete disaster. He was worried about the possibility that Roxas, in real life, would be completely different from the impression he got online and that in reality the two of them wouldn’t get along at all. He sighed, realizing it was pointless to worry about it, soon Roxas and he would meet face to face and probably everything would be easier than he expected.

His train of thought was stopped when he felt someone ruffling his hair, so he turned towards his older brother who smiled to him reassuringly.

“You okay? You’re being really silent,” questioned Aqua, leaning out from her seat to look at Ven in the eyes. Ven was the type of person who could talk for hours when he felt at ease with the people he was with. Terra and Aqua knew him well, so they began worrying when they noticed that Ven was being quiet.

The blond was quick to reassure his friends. “Y-yeah, everything’s fine! I was just thinking, that’s all!” he said trying to reassure them.

Neither Terra nor Aqua seemed convinced about his explanation, but they knew that this was probably really overwhelming for Ventus. It was the first time he flew out of his country and that was to go to a place he didn’t know, to meet his possible twin brother. Aqua figured that everyone would be tense in that situation.

“Are you worried about meeting Roxas?”

Ven shook his head. “It’s just…” he stopped, trying to find a way to reword his sentence, “I don’t know. I’m excited, but nervous as well.”

“That’s okay. I think everyone in your place would be nervous,” smiled Aqua, putting her hand on Ven’s shoulder.

“For what you told us, Roxas seems pretty cool.”

Ventus smiled, “I’m sure he is. I can’t wait to finally meet him.”

As if on cue, his phone vibrated, and soon after Ven saw a notification pop up on the screen.

_‘Can’t wait to finally meet you!’_ Ventus’ lips instantly curved in a smile. He immediately clicked the call button and had to wait for only a few rings before Roxas picked up. His hair looked messy and Ven could tell that the other one had probably just woken up.

“I can’t believe it is happening, it’s months I wish I could meet you,” he started talking as a response to what Roxas had texted him, without even greeting him. Roxas laughed in return, Ven’s excitement was contagious.

“Yeah! We’re going to have so much fun together! My mom is already in the kitchen cooking for tonight, so be prepared for a big dinner,” he warned before fixing his gaze towards Aqua who peeked behind Ven’s shoulder to say hi to Roxas.

“Hey Aqua!” he greeted back with a smile. Ven then felt a hand lying on his shoulder and he saw his brother behind him stooping towards the phone to get a better look at the screen.

“Hey, Terra,” said Roxas when he noticed Ven’s older brother behind him and the brunette greeted him back with a smile. It had happened sometimes before that his siblings would join him in their video calls, so they had already met Roxas.

“Make sure to take good care of Ven this week,” he said looking seriously at Roxas, while his hand was protectively squeezing Ventus’ shoulder. Terra and Aqua hadn’t hidden their worries about Ventus going to Twilight Town on his own, but they understood that meeting Roxas was important for Ven. Despite always seeing him as their little brother, Ventus was legally an adult and they couldn’t stop him to make his own decisions but that wouldn’t stop them from worrying about him.

“Terra!” Ven immediately protested turning towards Terra, whining. It was true that it was his first time travelling alone and that he was going to a place he didn’t know, but he was old enough to take care of himself. Aqua, Terra, and Roxas all laughed at Ven’s response which made him huff in return. He didn’t like being treated as a child.

“I will. Don’t worry,” answered Roxas, trying to reassure Terra. Considering how much of a worrywart Terra was, Ven was sure that he would worry about him anyway until he would get home safe and sound; not that Aqua was much better. Ven thought she tended to worry about him ever more than Terra. Fortunately, his brother seemed satisfied by Roxas’ answer and he smiled at Roxas and wished him to have fun during the week.

During that short exchange between Terra and Roxas, Ventus’ eyes fell on the clock and he realized that he needed to hurry if he didn’t want to miss the plane.

“I need to go to get ready. We’ll see each other later, okay?”

“Okay, see you later,” Roxas smiled before ending the phone call. Ven couldn’t believe that was a thing he could actually say. In a few hours, he would finally meet his doppelganger, possibly his twin brother.

\---

“He should be there by now,” mumbled Roxas while he was walking from side to side of the room. He checked multiple times the time where Ven would be there, but he was observing with attention the line of people who were arriving from the plane that just landed and he couldn’t spot Ven’s silhouette anywhere.

“Give him a minute, I’m sure he will be here soon,” Naminé patted on the seat next to her, wanting Roxas to sit and to relax a little bit. Xion was next to them looking around to see if she could see Ven anywhere, but there were so many people around that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Xion and Naminé, in quality of being his best friends, offered to go with him at the airport to go pick up Ven, which Roxas was grateful for because the wait was unnerving. His mom wanted to be there as well, but, in the end, she opted to meet Ven when they would get home because she wanted to cook him the best dinner she could as a welcome gift.

“Are you ready?” Xion asked taking a seat next to her friends and looking at the blond guy with curiosity.

Roxas sighed. He didn’t know if he would ever be ready for this. “I’ve been wanting to meet him since when we talked for the first time, but now that it’s time to meet him… I’m nervous.” Xion was surprised to hear him admit it out loud. Talking about his emotions was never Roxas’ best quality.

She nodded looking sympathetically at him. “I think you shouldn’t overthink it too much, just be yourself and everything will be fine. You guys video called each other for months and you never had any problems talking with him. In-person, it will get even better.”

“I bet that when he will be here, everything will come naturally,” Naminé smiled reaching for his hand and squeezed it gently trying to comfort him and he returned the gesture soon after. Xion lightly gasped when, in her line of sight, she spotted a familiar figure.

“I see him!” shouted Xion immediately standing up and pointing towards a blond guy. Even in the distance, Roxas didn’t have doubts that that was Ven. He was pulling a suitcase with him and was looking frantically around, probably looking for him.

Roxas raised his free arm waving to him to make sure Ven saw where they were. His heart was beating fast by now, and he could feel his hands were getting sweaty. He squeezed the blonde girl’s hand another time before letting her go and standing up to go towards Ven and start calling his name. Xion and Naminé didn’t move from their spot, not wanting to get in the way of the long-awaited reunion of their friend.

Ventus was looking around but he couldn’t spot Roxas anywhere until he finally heard a voice calling for him. With the number of people that were around, it was hard for him at first to recognize where the voice came from, but he knew he hadn’t dreamed it. He turned and noticed that in the distance there was a blond guy who was waving to him. As soon as he saw the other, he started running towards him. His heart was beating fast but he couldn’t wait anymore, the moment he had waited for the last months was about to happen and he couldn’t be more excited.

Ventus stopped a few steps before Roxas, panting from the run. He smiled awkwardly at his twin who returned the gesture with a smile just as awkward. It felt like their first video call, neither of them knew what to say and for a moment time seemed to stop.

Ventus didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Every time he imagined this moment, he hoped he and Roxas would immediately hug each other with happy tears in their eyes, but now that the moment came, he wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. One part of him was screaming at him to just hug Roxas and get it over with the awkward first meeting, but at the same time, he wasn’t sure his doppelganger would appreciate it. He didn’t want to make their first meeting more awkward than it already was and, most of all, he didn’t want to make Roxas uncomfortable right from the start. Ven could tell from Roxas’ body language that he was feeling as uncertain as he felt.

They took their time to just look at each other. They looked even more similar in person, they were the same height and probably the same weight as well, their face was the same, their resemblance went back to every single strand of hair. It gave him the impression that he was looking into a mirror, with the single exception that the mirror was not doing his same movements.

The entire situation felt so odd that Ven was starting to doubt that it was real. He was scared that he was just imagining it, maybe it was just another one of his dreams. So, he took a step towards Roxas and just poked his shoulder. Just to be sure that Roxas was not a product of his imagination, that he existed and was right there in front of him and he could touch him, feel him. Roxas looked at him confused at first, then he started to giggle. He wasn’t sure if it was because of all the tension dissolving or if it was because he wasn’t expecting it, but he laughed and, in turn, he poked Ven’s shoulder as well. This time they both laughed at it. That single gesture was able to dissipate the tension they both were feeling, and that made both of them feel better.

“I’m glad you’re here,” said Roxas in the end, the tension seemed to have dissipated and they both had a smile plastered on their face.

“I’m glad to be here,” exclaimed Ven, smiling.

“Wow, you guys really are identical!” gushed Xion stepping forward and taking a good look at the two of them. If she hadn’t known who of the two was her best friend, she would have probably mixed them up. The twins laughed. She then extended her arm towards Ventus, “I’m Xion by the way, nice to meet you Ventus,” Ventus smiled and shook Xion’s hand.

“And I’m Naminé,” said the blonde girl with a smile, shaking Ven’s hand after he finished introducing himself to Xion.

“I’m happy to finally meet you! Roxas talked a lot about you,” Ventus explained happily. He was happy he could finally meet Roxas’ friends considering how much the other seemed to talk about them and the girls seemed to be feeling the same way.

When they got home, Roxas’ mom had been really happy to see Ven, and immediately hugged him and made him feel like he was part of the family. She had cooked a nice dinner for him, like Roxas had told him that morning, and the conversation during dinner had felt nice. Ven was worried that it would feel awkward, at least at first, but in the end, there wasn’t any awkwardness between them. Roxas’ family and friends made him feel at home. They asked a lot of questions about him, even if he was sure Roxas had already told them many things, and they had been enthusiasts to know that he was in university studying to become a physiotherapist and that he liked to dance. All that attention made him feel welcomed.

As soon as dinner was over and Naminé and Xion got back home, Roxas dragged him in his room.

Roxas’ room was spacious and bright. The walls were painted in orange, which Ven remembered being Roxas’ favorite color from one of their multiple videocalls. The large window showed a nice view of Twilight Town and next to it there was Roxas’ bed which looked cozy to Ven. His bedside table was a bit messy; it had a lot of mangas on it.

Near the bed, there was a desk, which was just as messy as his bedside table. Ven’s eyes were immediately captured by the numerous pictures that were hanging on the wall in front of the desk. He could tell that they were Roxas’ pictures with his friends and family. In some pictures, he recognized Xion and Naminé, Roxas’ mother, and other people Ven had no idea about. He briefly wondered if, when they will finally take a picture together, he would make it to the wall.

Then his gaze fell on a skateboard which was leaning against the wall, it looked as if it was being carefully kept and had a cool black and white design painted on it.

“I didn’t know you skated,” he commented turning back to Roxas, who was kneeling on the floor while he was opening a box. Roxas looked at him with a confused expression on his face, which made Ventus realize how dumb what he said sounded. “With a skateboard I mean,” he corrected himself, rubbing the back of his head embarrassed which made Roxas smile.

“Yeah, that’s my main transportation system,” said Roxas, standing up to grab his skateboard and showing it to his twin. “Do you like it? Naminé personalized it for me,” he said, referring to the black and white design painted on it.

“It looks really cool!” affirmed Ven as he was watching with admiration the other’s skateboard. “I have one too! It’s not as cool as yours, but I can do some sick tricks with it!”

“Really? Me too. You should show me some of your tricks one of these days,” he proposed, putting the skateboard back on his place.

“It’s a deal,” answered Ven. He followed Roxas with his eyes as the other kneeled on the floor and started to open the box he had brought with him. Ven immediately kneeled beside him and looked at the box and he realized that it contained an air mattress.

“Oh, that’s where I’m going to sleep?” he asked looking at Roxas with curiosity.

“No, you’re going to sleep on my bed. I’ll sleep here,” Roxas explained, extracting the mattress from the box and turning it around to take a better look at it and trying to find the air valve.

“I can sleep on the mattress!” Ventus immediately interjected, feeling bad because he didn’t want the other to sleep uncomfortably for him.

“No, you’re my guest so you get my bed,” opposed Roxas, while he finally found the air valve where he was supposed to insert the pump to inflate the mattress.

“But you need to sleep well for the show,” argued again the other blond, looking at Roxas struggling to insert the pump in the air valve.

“I’m going to sleep really well on this mattress, trust me,” said Roxas, as he was finally able to insert correctly the pump into the mattress’s valve. He then turned towards Ventus, who still didn’t look convinced, and sighed. He let go of the mattress and the pump and he extended his fist. Ventus looked at it quizzically, not understanding what the other wanted to say. “Let’s play rock, paper, scissors. Whoever wins gets the bed,” explained the blond. Ven seemed to like the idea and immediately nodded. He held out his fist and they both started to play the game.

“Rock, paper, scissors,” they said in unison, both of them finishing holding out rock. That didn’t seem to stop them and they started immediately another round to break the tie.

“Rock, paper, scissors,” they recited again, together. This time they both chose scissors meaning that it was a tie again, but they didn’t get discouraged and immediately started another match.

“Rock, paper, scissors,” they chose rock again. At that point, they both started laughing.

“We are such twins,” Ventus commented, not holding back his laugh which joined with Roxas’ one. It had never been that hard to play rock, paper, scissors but here they were. They tried again, one last time.

“Rock, paper, scissors.” This time Roxas held out paper and Ven held out scissors.

“Finally!” Ventus exclaimed, pretending to cut Roxas’ open hand since scissors cut paper.

“See? You won fairly so you get the bed and you’re not allowed to complain anymore,” Roxas reprimanded jokingly pointing an accusatory finger at him that made Ven giggle lightly. He then turned his attention back at the mattress he needed to inflate if he didn’t want to sleep on the floor. Ventus decided to help him, so they took turns pushing on the pump until the airbed was completely inflated.

As soon as they finished and the airbed was ready, Roxas jumped on it and he laughed when he felt the mattress jolt lightly under him.

“I want to try it too!” exclaimed the other blond, throwing himself on the mattress as well. The impact made the mattress jolt again and the sudden movement caused Roxas to fell out of it causing them both to laugh uncontrollably.

As soon as Roxas got back on his feet, he took the pillow from his bed with a playful smirk and threw it at Ven as a revenge to have made him fall from the mattress.

He immediately regretted his decision when he realized than now Ven had two pillows to attack him with and he had none to defend himself. Roxas didn’t miss the mischievous smile on Ven’s lips while he took the pillow he had been hit with and began swinging it wildly towards Roxas who tried to defend himself with the blanket he found on his bed, without any result. Ventus kept hitting him with his pillow and they both were laughing so hard it was becoming hard to breathe. It didn’t take long for Ven to be declared the winner since Roxas threw his chances at victory with the pillow he threw at Ven at the start.

“I won,” declared Ven, lying on the airbed, still trying to catch his breath. Roxas was sitting near the mattress, he too was still catching his breath from the pillow fight and the laughter. He took advantage of Ven’s distraction to take the pillow that the other blond had carelessly abandoned on the floor and hit Ventus with it. “Hey, the match was already over!” Ven whined after he got hit.

“No one said it was!”

“I did!” They looked at each other in the eyes for a few seconds before another fit of laughter started.

They ended up sprawled on the mattress, still trying to catch their breath. They both were exhausted for the long day, but they had a smile on their face. They knew that it was only the start of a great week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I hoped you liked this chapter! I'm sorry it took so long but, in the last month, it had been really hard for me to find the time to write, mostly because of university which didn't give me a break, even in quarantine.  
> Hopefully, the next chapter will be up sooner, I've already partly written it so I hope to not take too long to finish it!


	5. The ice show

The sun rays hitting delicately his face made him slowly open his eyes. At first, he felt disoriented since he was not able to recognize his surrounding; it took some moments to process where he was and why. He lazily stretched and with a yawn he got up on a sitting position. He gave a brief look at the room and he finally remembered the events that took place the day before and the thought of it immediately put a smile on his face. He looked out of the window beside the bed and was amazed by the view. Twilight Town seemed to be a beautiful place and he couldn’t wait to visit every angle of it with Roxas. Speaking of Roxas, he turned towards him and immediately noticed that he was still sleeping peacefully on the mattress on the floor.

He was not sure if he was supposed to wake him up or to just wait until Roxas would wake up by himself. In the end, he decided to lay on his bed and take that time to relax before the day would start. He grabbed his phone that he left on the bedside table and typed a quick message to Terra, to assure him that everything was okay and to check how Aqua and he were doing.

He didn’t know how much time passed before he heard Roxas moving and muttering something. He turned towards him to check what was going on and he saw Roxas, not fully awake yet, who was scratching lazily his eyes while yawing.

“Good morning,” he greeted with a smile, making Roxas instinctively startle with a small gasp, before turning towards him wide-eyed. He looked at him confused for some seconds before finally processing what was going on.

“Morning,” Roxas murmured before yawning again. “Ready for today?” he asked, his voice still slurred because he was sleeping until not much before.

“I am. But it doesn’t look like you are,” Ven joked before getting up from the bed and sitting on the floor instead, so he could be at the same eye level of Roxas, who was still lying on the airbed.

“Mhmm,” was Roxas’ eloquent answer as he was stretching on the bed. “We need to do the test,” he said, after a while.

“What test?” asked Ven with clear confusion painted on his face. Roxas lazily pointed at his desk without saying a word, so Ven got up and went to check on the desk. At first, he didn’t see anything that resembled a test, but it was not easy to find something in the mess of papers, books and junk that was on Roxas’ desk, then his eyes fell on two small boxes and it was then that he realized what Roxas was talking about. Those were DNA Test Kits.

After their attempt to contact their biological family failed, they decided to try another way to find out if they were related or not: a DNA test. Looking back, they didn’t know why they hadn’t thought about it sooner since it was the easiest way and the test will give them a truthful answer anyways.

They both agreed that they needed to take the test as soon as possible to make sure that the results will get back before the end of the week when Ventus would go back home. They had agreed to wait to be together to do the test since it seemed like the easiest way and they wanted to be together when they found out the results too.

Ven took the boxes and went back to sit next to Roxas, who looked still half asleep, so he opened one of the boxes and started reading carefully the instructions as he waited for Roxas to wake up completely.

“How does it work?” asked Roxas after a while, finally getting up on a sitting position and looking a little more awake. He tried to peak behind Ven’s shoulders as he was reading carefully the instructions. They didn’t want to get the test done the wrong way.

“We need to wipe that,” Ventus said pointing at the swabs that came with the DNA test kits, “inside our mouth.”

“Oh,” Roxas said sounding almost disappointed. “That’s it? It sounds way easier than I thought.”

So, they went into the bathroom and took the DNA test. They rubbed the scrapers inside their cheeks for about a minute looking quizzically at each other, silently asking themselves if they were doing it the right way. Roxas imitated Ven in everything he was doing since he was the one who read the instructions. After they finished rubbing the first scraper into their mouth, they inserted it into the vial being as careful as they could following the correct procedure, then they repeated the operation with the second swabs. When they finished the process, they placed the vials into a plastic bag and sealed the envelope to send it to the laboratory.

“Let’s hope we did it the correct way,” Ventus sighed at the end of the process as he looked at the envelope ready to be sent to the laboratory.

“Yeah…” agreed Roxas with a sigh. “And that they will answer us soon.”

“So, what are the plans for today? Today is the day of the show, right?” asked Ven looking excitedly at Roxas, curious to know what they were going to do during the day.

“Oh yeah, I need to go to the rink early because we need to rehearse for the show,” remembered Roxas smacking his face with his right hand as he led Ventus back to his room. “I hope it won’t be too boring for you,” he said smiling apologetically at Ven.

“It’s okay!” Ven reassured immediately. “I’m actually kind of curious to see how are the rehearsal for an ice show!”

“Today you’ll also meet my other friends,” Roxas said as a playful smirk showed up on his face. “I didn’t tell them you would be here,” he added as he opened his closet for Ven. He didn’t need to add more for Ven to understand what he meant as he grinned in response.

\---

They made their way into the ice palace the show would have taken place in. On their way there, Ven noticed some of the posters of the show which portrayed different skaters, including Roxas. Ven found it strange to see his face on a poster. He knew it technically wasn’t him, but it gave him a weird impression nonetheless. It was also weird to remember how much Roxas was successful as a skater. When he first saw him some months before on television, it gave him the impression that he was almost unapproachable considering his big success, but since they started talking regularly, he almost forgot about it because Roxas rarely talked about his success or his career at all, unless he was asked about it.

There were a lot of people around, Ven guessed they were probably the organizers of the shows. For what he knew they could have been other skaters as well, since – besides Roxas – he didn’t follow figure skating a lot. Some of them noticed the two arriving and they greeted Roxas, but most of them just gave them weird glances.

“Roxas, you arrived finally!” As soon as they entered the building, one man suddenly pulled them on the side, then his gaze fell on Ventus and he started glancing from one to the other with a quizzical glance.

Roxas noticed the man’s confusion, so he intervened. “Oh, he’s Ventus. He’s my…” he interrupted his sentence, not sure how to end it, and turning towards Ven looking for help, but Ven just raised his shoulders and shook his head, “…friend?” he ended, sounding more like a question than an affirmation. He was still looking towards Ven, asking him silently if he said the right thing. The man scowled at him, not convinced about his explanation, and, after quickly greeting Ventus, he turned back to Roxas and started talking about other matters.

Ven took advantage of the situation to look at the rink where the show would have been held. There were already some people on the ice warming up for rehearsal. He was amazed by how big it was, the ice looked huge to Ven who had never skated before and had never seen an ice rink in person.

“Roxas!” shouted someone from afar, running towards him. Ven hadn’t had time to realize what was happening when he felt someone putting his arms around him and holding him tightly. Normally, Ventus loved hugs, but he felt a bit uneasy about the fact that some stranger was hugging him. Said stranger probably noticed his lack of reaction because he pulled back from his hug and took a good look at him “You o- Wait, you are not Roxas!” he exclaimed surprised. “Ventus?”

The boy had tanned skin, spiky brown hair and blue eyes and he must have been around his age. Ven was sure he had already seen him before.

“Yes?” answered Ven. He remembered him during the World Championships Victory Ceremony he saw some months ago, the same video that allowed him to get to know Roxas. Now that he thought about it, Roxas had mentioned training and being friends with a certain ‘Sora’, multiples times. “Sora?” He asked unsurely.

“I’m so happy to meet you!” gushed Sora proceeding to hug him again. This time Ventus hugged him back, happy to meet another one of Roxas’ friends.

How in the world had Sora been able to tell him and Roxas apart?

When they pulled back from their hug Sora noticed that the other blond boy was walking towards them looking at them wide-eyed, so he shouted his name again and immediately ran to hug Roxas tightly. Ventus noted immediately that Sora seemed to be someone who really loved physical contact.

“Hey, Sora,” greeted Roxas after pulling out of their hug.

“Roxas! How come you didn’t tell me that Ven was here?” questioned the brunette, faking his anger.

“I wanted to surprise you,” explained Roxas. “How were you able to tell us apart so easily?” asked Roxas, honestly curious.

Sora seemed surprised by the question as if until then he didn’t even realize that the two blond guys were identical. “Well, your hair is darker and your eyes are narrower than Ven’s,” Sora stated as if it was obvious. Roxas and Ventus looked at each other to check that what Sora said was true, but it was not easy since they could only the other and not themselves. Roxas had never realized how much Sora was observant of so small details, but it felt nice that at least one of his friends was able to tell him apart from Ventus.

They walked towards a bench since Roxas needed to prepare himself for the rehearsal. On their way there, Sora kept talking their ears off but Ventus immediately realized and appreciated the way Sora was trying to keep both of them engaged in the conversation, despite having just met him.

“It’s great that you are here! Roxas talked so much about you,” exclaimed Sora enthusiastically as they reached the bench.

“Really?” asked Ven surprised, “I hope he talked well about me,” joked Ven with a smile as he turned to look at Roxas.

Sora nodded excitedly. “For sure, I’ve never seen him so excited about anything,” he explained matter-of-factly, which made Ven even more surprised, but it also made him feel a warmth on his heart.

“Sora!” Roxas protested. “Shut up!” he said throwing the first thing he found, which happened to be a sock, in an attempt to quite him but it only made him and Ven burst into laughter. “Ven! Not you too!”

“Wait, are you blushing?” asked Sora playfully as Roxas hid his face behind his hands flustered.

“Soraa,” he complained again, his voice muffled from his hands. “Stop it!” he ordered, annoyed as he punched him on lightly the shoulder causing him to laugh even more.

“There’s nothing to be ashamed about. It’s actually kind of sweet!” interfered Ven, when he finally stopped laughing, in an attempt to comfort Roxas, who looked embarrassed.

“No, it’s not!” protested Roxas, when one skater came up to them and informed Sora and Roxas that it was time to practice the opening number, which caused both of them to jump on their feet and get ready to go into the ice.

Ventus looked curiously as Roxas entered into the rink. He followed Roxas with his eyes as he was gliding fast on the ice. He and Sora were warming up but, at the same time, they looked like they were jokingly competing against each other over who was faster. They seemed to be having a lot of fun and that made Ven wish he could join them, even if he knew it wasn’t possible unless he wanted to disrupt the rehearsal of the show. Ven was amazed about how fast they could glide in the ice without losing control of what they were doing.

Ven followed with curiosity the rehearsal of the show, amazed by the amount of talent that was gathered in that revenue. He looked carefully at what Roxas was doing on the ice and he was stunned by how huge Roxas’ jumps were and kept wondering what was the physics behind it.

Roxas tried to stay by his side every second he didn’t need to rehearse the group numbers or his solo number and, when he was occupied, Sora was the one who kept him company by the banister. It didn’t take long to realize what a warm person he was and Ven immediately liked his company.

“How long have you known Roxas?” Ven asked curiously, as he looked at Roxas who was on the ice waiting to rehearse his exhibition program. All Roxas’ friends were trying to get to know him better, he wanted to do the same. Sora pulled up a thinking expression on his face.

“I don’t really remember… a lot of years ago, but we did become friends when he moved to Radiant Garden and we became training mates. We didn’t talk much before that. But I admired him a lot, I was really happy when Phil told me that Roxas would have come training there with us.” Ven nodded with interest, prompting Sora to go on. “At first Roxas was so focused on training that it was hard to even find a moment to talk to him. I don’t think he was interested in becoming my friend at all, but when I finally managed to talk to him we found out we had a lot in common and after that, we became friends quickly”.

“Isn’t it weird being friends with one of your rivals?” asked Ventus, honestly wondering about that.

“Nah, Roxas is my friend first and rival second. We are both very competitive with each other, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t be friends. I think our competitiveness brings out the best of each other,” explained Sora putting his hands behind his head.

“I never thought of it like that,” commented Ven.

“What about you? How did you find about Roxas?” It was a question he had been asked a lot in the last 24 hours but he didn’t mind answering. As soon as he started talking, Sora seemed really into his story, listening attentively, nodding and smiling enthusiastically. “It’s so amazing how destiny works. If you didn’t turn on the television at that time you may have never found out about him.”

“Yes, it’s crazy!”

“I think you guys were destined to meet again! You are brothers for sure.”

“Yeah… I hope so,” said Ven, almost in a whisper, hoping that the DNA test that they did that morning would give them the result they hoped for.

\---

In the end, the day passed quickly and it was almost time for the show to start. As soon as Roxas’ phone ringed and his friends told him they were there, they both got really excited. They had been waiting all day for that. That morning Roxas had let him borrow his clothes so that they could prank his friends and see if they were able to tell them apart. Since they already had the same hairstyle, it didn’t take much for Ven to look exactly like Roxas. Unfortunately, that morning Sora took him by surprise so he ended up finding out immediately, but he would be more prepared for Roxas’ other friends.

Roxas brought him at the spot where his friends were waiting for him to greet him quickly before it was time for all the spectators to enter into the rink and take their seats. Ven didn’t take long to recognize Roxas’ friends since they were talking animatedly with Naminé and Xion. Roxas hid behind a wall to make sure that they couldn’t see him. Besides Xion and Naminé, he hadn’t told anyone about Ven’s visit to Twilight Town so he wondered if his friends would realize the difference.

Ven walked towards the friends’ group trying to act as he thought Roxas would act. As soon as they noticed him, he smiled brightly and waved his arm as he walked towards them. “Hey, guys!” Ven said, trying his best to sound like Roxas. He noticed that, even if they supposedly had the same vocal cords, Roxas’ voice seemed to be lower than his.

He saw, through the corner of his eyes, that Naminé was hiding her mouth with her hand, trying to cover her giggles, while Xion was confusedly looking around, probably trying to find the real Roxas. Ven hoped they reacted that way only because they knew what they were doing and not because he was doing a horrible job at it.

“Roxas!” shouted the three guys that Ven didn’t meet yet in a chorus before they started running towards him.

“How are you?” exclaimed the black-haired guy, who he presumed being Pence.

“We haven’t seen you in so long!” smiled the brown-haired girl, who he assumed being Olette, greeting him with a hug.

“You could have come back to Twilight Town sooner!” protested the guy with the spiky, blond hair, that Ventus supposed to be Hayner thanks to Roxas’ descriptions.

“Don’t worry, what it matters is that you’re here now,” reassured Olette with a smile, contradicting what Hayner just said.

“Yeah, it’s just Hayner who can’t express his feelings without being a jerk. You know, like usual,” intervened Pence, his words causing Ven to grin as Hayner was about to protest again but was stopped promptly by Olette.

“I’m happy to see you guys. I’ve missed you,” he smiled, hoping it was something Roxas would say to his friends. He realized immediately that it probably wasn’t, as all three of them gazed at him quizzically.

“Dude, since when have you become so sentimental?” asked Hayner throwing a light punch on his shoulder. “If you missed us that much you could have at least come to our secret spot to say hi.”

“I’m sorry, I’ve been very busy lately,” Ven tried to defend himself, or better, Roxas, as he put a hand behind his head, embarrassed.

“You’re acting weird,” commented Pence, looking at him with a puzzled expression on his face. Ven was sure he messed up again; he threw a glance at Xion and Naminé and he could see that they were trying hard to not burst into laughter. Fortunately, Hayner, Pence and Olette were so focused on him that they hardly notice.

“Ohh, I bet I know what happened!” Olette exclaimed, looking as if she unmasked him. Ven was sure she was going to reveal his real identity, but he had to think again when she said what was actually on her mind. “You’ve finally met your special someone, right?” she exclaimed looking extremely excited about the idea.

“What?” How did she even get that idea? “No, not at all!” Ventus exclaimed, his embarrassment grew by the second and he turned towards the spot where Roxas was supposed to be hiding. How much longer was Roxas going to let him pretend to be him? The situation was getting out of hand. “It is just the nerves for the show, nothing else.” Ven realized he had probably said something wrong again because his friends looked at him once again suspiciously.

“Dude, since when are you so nervous before a show? When I came to one of your competitions, you acted way less weirdly than today. Are you sure everything is okay?” asked Hayner, sounding worried. Ven mentally slapped himself and looked once again at the spot where Roxas was supposed to be. This time, fortunately, he decided to answer his pleas. He was relieved when he saw Roxas walking towards them, but he didn’t miss the amused smile that was on his face. Ven betted that Roxas must have a lot of fun looking at him struggling to pretend to be him.

“I’m really disappointed in you guys,” chuckled Roxas as he walked towards them, trying his best to look disappointed even if Ven could tell he was holding back laughter. At the sound of his voice, Hayner, Pence and Olette turned towards Roxas and their posture stiffened as he heard a small gasp coming from Olette.

“Roxas!?” she exclaimed, even if it sounded more like a question that an affirmation. All three of them looked wide-eyed at him as if they saw an alien. Then they looked at Ven with the same incredulous expression. Then Pence seemed to realize.

“Is this the guy you talked to us about?” asked Pence.

“Wow, the resemblance is uncanny,” exclaimed Olette, her gaze kept jumping from Ventus to Roxas, incredulously.

“Why didn’t you tell us he was coming?”

“I wanted to test you guys,” explained Roxas, “all three of you failed.” Ventus laughed at his look-alike’s statement. “I can’t believe you didn’t realize it wasn’t me! What if I was abducted and substituted with a clone? You wouldn’t even know…” commented Roxas, trying his best to sound disappointed and gaining a light punch on the shoulder from Hayner.

“Come on now, be real! As if anyone would want to abduct a bonehead like you!”

“Hey!” protested Roxas, as he and Hayner started to bicker playfully.

“I’m sorry for tricking you. I’m Ventus by the way, but you can call me Ven,” exclaimed Ven happily as he extended his hand to formally introduce himself to Pence and Olette who did the same.

“It’s nice to meet you Ven, I’m Pence!”

“I’m Olette, and he is Hayner,” said Olette, pointing at Hayner who was still bickering with Roxas. “But probably Roxas has already talked to you about him.”

As soon as the first spectators started to enter the building, Roxas immediately stopped squabbling with Hayner. “I need to go get ready before the show starts. I’ll see you later,” he said, starting to walk away in a hurry, without even waiting for an answer.

“Don’t suck!” exclaimed Hayner, before he could disappear from their eyesight.

“Thanks for your encouraging words, I’ll try not to!”

It didn’t take long for Ven to understand why Roxas went away so quickly, as the first people entered the building and some of them started to look at him in awe and someone even came to him to say good luck or to ask for a picture, causing him to feel uncomfortable since he didn’t know how to respond. Fortunately for him, Hayner didn’t have any problem telling them that he was not Roxas and to leave him alone.

When they finally got to their seats, he decided that he would not move until the show was over and most fans were gone, to avoid other people mistaking him for Roxas.

As they were waiting for the show to start, Ven discovered that Xion and Naminé’s company was pleasant, they ended up talking about a lot of things. He found out Xion loved animals, especially dogs and she volunteered at an animal shelter and now was studying to become a vet; Naminé instead was passionate about art and loved to draw. She explained to him that she always brought her sketchpad with her, just in case the inspiration for another drawing came. Then she opened her sketchpad and showed him a sketch she was doing.

“It’s not finished yet, but this is you and Roxas yesterday,” Ven observed the drawing which was portraying the moment when Ven touched Roxas’ shoulder. Even if it was not finished it already looked perfect to him.

“Wow, this is already perfect!” he commented in awe by her talent, especially because drawing has never been his forte.

“Thanks. I thought your first meeting was really sweet so I wanted to draw it,” she explained with a small smile as she watched her drawing. "He was really happy to meet you," she explained with a smile that delicately lightened her features.

“Yes, you should have seen him when we were waiting for you at the airport, he was so nervous!” giggled Xion gaining a smile from Naminé as well.

Before Ven could reply, the lights of the arena got off and some upbeat music started playing. Ven immediately jumped straight on his seat, feeling strangely nervous for Roxas. He watched carefully as each skater came out and did what Ven guessed was their signature move as the announcer introduced them to the crowd. Ven clapped at each skater even if he kept glancing at the opening of the rink to see if the next one would be Roxas or not. He jolted on his seat when he heard a loud cheer from the crowd, way louder than the ones they gave for the other skaters, and he noticed that Sora had entered the ice.

“Sora is really popular,” he heard Naminé whisper in his ears, noticing his confusion. Ven had met Sora only a few hours before but he realized that the brunette guy knew how to make himself loved, he seemed really nice and sweet and he didn’t find it hard to believe that was beloved by figure skating fans.

Roxas was the last one to came out and do his signature move, and he got a good amount of cheers from the crowd as well. Ven clapped vigorously when he did one of his jumps and then joined the other skaters to do their group choreography with them. When the opening ended, he clapped energetically again. The show had just started but he was already enjoying it a lot. He could tell that there was a lot of talent there between all the skaters.

Following the opening, every skater did their exhibition program. Ven watched with interest all the exhibitions and found all the skaters enjoyable to watch.

He was not as surprised as before to hear the crowd literally roar when it was Sora’s turn to do his exhibition. He was skating to a Pirate of the Caribbean soundtrack and it didn’t take long for Ven to understand why he was so loved. His charisma made the spectator enter into the performance and it was obvious how much Sora himself was loving performing that program. He was able to hit every accent of the music and to dance to it with his whole body. Unlike other skaters, he didn’t have any jump in his performance, but he didn’t need jumps to make his performance breath-taking. Ven couldn’t help but keep his eyes on Sora during his whole performance and he wasn’t surprised when, in the end, he got a standing ovation.

When Roxas was finally announced he received a lot of cheers and a loud applause as well. Twilight Town was his hometown and the people were particularly happy to see him. Roxas’ choice of music was way different from Sora; it was darker and more melancholic but not less beautiful. Roxas’ performance felt very powerful, with his speed and movements that matched the rhythm of the music and his jumps always caused a big reaction from the crowd, who cheered loudly. He seemed to have a lot of control of what he was doing and he displayed a great connection to the music he was skating to, even if in a different way compared to Sora, Ven found him breath-taking as well. He couldn’t help but feel very proud of Roxas and he was not surprised when the crowd decided to give him a standing ovation as well.

In the end, it was fun to see all the skaters do another performance all together for the ending. The show ended quickly in Ven’s opinion who ended up enjoying the performance of every skater. Ven noted to himself that he needed to come to other ice shows in the future.

\---

When he reunited with Roxas after the show, he was chatting animatedly with Sora, but as soon as they saw their group approaching them, they stopped talking and turned towards them with a smile.

“So how did it seem?” asked Sora with a goofy smile painted on his face. Roxas’ friends started showering him and Roxas with compliments, Ven was nodding in agreement when he noticed that Roxas was not really listening to what his friends had to say, but was looking at him instead. As soon as their eyes met, Roxas smiled at him and he got closer to him, distancing themselves from the group.

“What did you think?” asked Roxas continuing to smile. It was a reserved smile, almost shy. “Did you like it?”

“Of course! You were amazing, I couldn’t let my eyes off you when you skated,” Ven stated as if it was an obvious answer. “You should really teach me one of these days!” he said, remembering that Roxas was the one to propose this idea the first time they talked some months before.

Roxas only nodded with a smile, a more confident one this time. “I’m sorry I kinda left you alone today, but I promise the next days I will always be with you.”

“It almost sounds like a threat.”

“What? Aren’t you happy to spend time with me?” Roxas feigned surprise placing a hand on his chest pretending that Ven’s affirmation really hurt him.

“I don’t know, let me think about it,” said Ventus assuming a thinking expression, tapping his chin with his finger. As soon as his gaze crossed with Roxas’ he couldn’t help but start grinning, unable to maintain the serious façade. Roxas opened his mouth to add something, but, before he could, Sora crashed him into a tight hug since his friends were calling for him and he needed to go. As soon as he finished saying goodbye to Roxas he turned towards Ventus and hugged him as well.

“It was great meeting you Ven! I hope we’ll be able to see each other again,” he told him and Ven didn’t have time to answer because the brunette ran away to his friends who were waiting for him.

“We should get going too. It’s getting late,” commented Roxas as he noticed that his friends were waiting for them. Ven only nodded as they started walking towards them, ready to get home after the long day.


	6. Visiting Twilight Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roxas shows Ven around his hometown.

Ven was looking around curiously, every little thing was catching his attention. Most of all, he loved the beautiful view: since Twilight Town was located on a mountain, they could see everything from a higher point of view and Ven liked to see all the nature that was around the town, it made him feel at peace. He was also enjoying the quietness because he liked to hear the sound of the birds chirping.

That day Roxas was going to give him a tour of Twilight Town. Ven was excited for that since until then he had only been able to see the town from the car’s window or the windows of Roxas’ house. He was eager to know more about the place where Roxas grew up.

Roxas and he were walking in the street of Sunset Terrace as he looked with interest at the different little shops they were passing by, just in case he saw something he wanted to buy for Terra and Aqua as a souvenir of his trip.

His gaze fell on the window of a little bookshop, his eyes immediately lightening at the sight. “Can we go inside and look around?” he immediately asked Roxas, who couldn’t do anything but oblige at the enthusiasm of the other guy.

When they entered the shop, the little bell that was by the door ringed, warning the shop assistant of the arrival of the customers. “Hi, Roxas. I didn’t know you were back,” she immediately said, her smile turned in a surprised expression as she saw the second blond guy entering the bookshop.

“Hi. Yes, I’m back for a little vacation. This is Ven, by the way,” he explained as he noticed that the clerk was watching the two in confusion.

“Nice to meet you,” Ven politely offered his hand which the old lady shook, with a kind smile, not asking further questions even if it looked like she had plenty. “We just wanted to look around, if that’s okay,” he explained and the woman nodded, leaving them alone to explore the shop.

“I’m sorry, in this town everyone knows each other, so this is probably going to happen for the whole day,” Roxas explained in a whisper, as soon as they were far enough from the old woman.

“It’s okay. I guess it must be a little strange for them to see suddenly two Roxas.”

“I guess you’re right,” Roxas agreed.

Ven was amazed that from inside the little bookshop was way bigger than what it seemed from outside and he felt like he was in his natural habitat. He went from book to book, reading the plot of the ones with an interesting title and making Roxas read the plots of the ones that he liked more.

“I didn’t know you liked to read that much,” Roxas observed as he watched Ven reading eagerly the plots of several books. Not that he minded, Ven’s enthusiasm was contagious and seeing the other so happy made him happy.

“I love reading! My bookshelf is so full that I don’t even know where to put my books,” Ven explained as his eyes trailed to a local cooking recipes’ book. “Aqua would love this one!” he exclaimed as he took the book in his hands and started to browse the pages. He decided to not place it back in the shelf as he looked around for more books, Roxas following him. “Do you like to read?” he asked, turning towards the other.

“I read sometimes, but mostly mangas to be honest,” Roxas explained. He didn’t mind reading, but he definitely wouldn’t consider himself an avid reader.

“I love mangas!” Ven commented. “We can go check the mangas section too, maybe you’ll find something that you like,” he suggested.

As they kept looking around the shop, Ven’s eyes fell on one novel called _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy._ Roxas was observing his look-alike as he was reading the plot of the book, he even started to read the first pages and he seemed completely captured by it _._ “Rox, this book seems so good,” he exclaimed as he handed to the other the book so that he could read the plot too.

“It seems interesting. So, you like science fiction, uh?” Roxas asked when he finished reading the plot as he handed Ven the novel back and Ven started to browse excited between the pages.

“Yes! These books are so catching! You should read one, I think you’ll like it,” Ven commented as he set the book on the shelf and took his phone from his pocket.

“Wait, aren’t you going to buy it?” Roxas asked as he watched the other typing something on his phone.

Ventus shook his head. “If it were for me, I would buy the whole bookstore,” he joked, then added, “I don’t have too much money with me today, so I’d rather just buy the cooking book for Aqua. I’m sure she’ll love it.”

“That’s not a problem, I can buy it for you,” Roxas said as he was already looking for his wallet.

Ventus stopped him immediately. “Don’t worry, I wrote the title of the book on my phone’s notes, so I can remember it and buy it another time,” he explained, showing it to Roxas to stress his point.

“Oh, okay,” Roxas agreed as he gave one last glance at the book, before following Ven at the cash desk.

When Ven exited from the bookstore he felt happy to have found something that Aqua would love. Now, he just needed to find something for Terra and he would be done with souvenirs.

“I’m sorry I took so long. I can’t wait to see the rest of the town,” Ven said as soon as he was out from the shop. When he noticed the lack of answer he turned around and noticed that Roxas was nowhere to be seen. “Rox?” he called, looking around. Was he still in the shop? His question was answered only moments later when he saw the door of the shop open, followed by the sight of a familiar blond. “Roxas! What were you doing?” Ven exclaimed as he saw the other walking towards him.

“I’m sorry, the clerk stopped me to ask me something,” Roxas explained as they started walking towards the hill.

“No worries! Where are we going now?” Ven asked full of curiosity.

“We are near Sunset Hill, so we can go there,” Roxas suggested and Ven immediately approved of the idea.

\---

When they got to Sunset Hill, Ven was stunned once again by the view of the town. Ven looked in amazement at the landscape and he liked the fact that Twilight Town was so immersed into nature.

“I love the view,” Ven whispered, and Roxas couldn’t help but agree. The beautiful view and landscape were just one of the many things he loved about his hometown.

When they heard the soft sound of a violin, their attention was immediately captured by it. A violinist was playing some music on Sunset Hill as a small crowd of people was gathered around her, listening to the amazing sound she was able to produce with her instrument. Being drawn by that sound, Roxas and Ventus naturally walked towards her to listen to the exhibition.

Ven knew the music that was being played and he started instinctively moving his body on time with it.

“You should join her,” whispered Roxas on his ear, not having missed Ven’s slight movements.

“Uh?” asked Ven confused, not understanding what the other was talking about.

“You should join her,” repeated Roxas, louder this time. When the look of confusion of Ven’s face didn’t dissipate he decided to elaborate a little bit more. “You dance, right?”

Ven immediately widened his eyes, surprised, and looked at Roxas as if he was crazy. “No. I can’t do that,” he exclaimed immediately.

“Why not?” asked Roxas, looking at the other honestly confused. “Come on, you look like you’re dying to do that!”

Ven immediately shook his head again and when Roxas didn’t answer immediately he thought he gave up on it, but he was proven wrong when the other pushed him on the middle of the crowd. For a split second, he was really confused about what he was supposed to do, and truly considered going back to Roxas and take some kind of revenge on him for having put him on the spot like that, but everybody was looking at him. He turned towards Roxas who smiled at him innocently and nodded in encouragement.

Ven closed his eyes and took two deep breaths as he tried to connect with the music. He started moving his body like the music itself was suggesting him to and in a split second the crowd disappeared, the violinist disappeared, Roxas disappeared. There were only him and the music.

He forgot he was in the middle of a small crowd, he was just listening to the music and moving as it was telling him to. He didn’t think of anything as he was dancing, he was just feeling freedom as if nothing else mattered and he could just dance pouring his heart out in every movement. When the music ended and he stopped, the sound of the crowd clapping made him come back to reality. As he was catching his breath, he looked at the small crowd that was clapping at the violinist and him and the fact that they liked it made him feel a sense of pride.

“Wow, you are so good!” Roxas ran towards him, looking really happy and immediately grasping his hands and jumping excitedly. The enthusiastic reaction and the compliments made his cheeks redden as he massaged the back of his head embarrassed.

After they complimented the violinist and tipped her, they decided to start walking towards the station to take a train to the main town since in Sunset Terrace there was nothing else Roxas wanted to show Ven. As they walked towards the station, Roxas couldn’t stop praising him. “You were so amazing, you looked like you were in your world, and were one with the music! Were you improvising? Because it looked like you knew exactly what you were doing!”

“Come on now, I wasn’t that good,” commented Ven embarrassed. He appreciated the compliments but felt like he was not as good as Roxas said.

“Are you kidding me? You killed it,” commented Roxas turning serious. “Ven, I promise if I thought you were horrible, I wouldn’t be lying about it,” assured Roxas and judging by his tone, Ven didn’t doubt it. “You undervalue yourself so much, you were really good!”

Ven cheeks were all red from all the compliments but he appreciated them. “Thank you,” he said gratefully. “But next time don’t push me on the spot like that!”

“I’m sorry, I felt like you needed a little push,” Roxas tried to justify himself. “At first, when you turned towards me, I thought you were going to choke me or something.”

“That was exactly what I was planning to do,” agreed Ventus. “You should thank my magnanimity for letting you live.”

“Thank you for not killing me then,” Roxas said laughing. Ven lightly pushed Roxas away from him, but couldn’t stop the smile that cracked on his face. “But seriously, I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Maybe you were right and I needed a little push…”

“I promise I won’t do it again,” smiled Roxas as they went upstairs towards Sunset Station. “Anyways, now I’m curious! I feel like you could really be a professional dancer if you wanted to!” commented Roxas, in admiration. “Have you ever thought about that?”

“I did, but I decided not to. I love dancing but I prefer to do it as a hobby more than a job, honestly. I’ve always wanted to help people and when I found out what a physiotherapist was, I immediately felt that that was what I wanted to do. I still try to keep my training and go to dance class as much as I can though, even if it’s hard to do both at times.”

“That’s really sweet. I’m sure you’ll become an amazing physiotherapist one day. Yeah, I can imagine, but you are a really good dancer and I’m happy you keep training.”

“Thanks. I hope so,” said Ventus gratefully. “What about you? Will you always be in the sport or do you want to win the Olympics and then leave it and do something else?” he asked as they sat on a bench, waiting for a train to arrive.

“I haven’t decided yet… I mean, I want to go to the Olympics for sure but I haven’t really thought about what to do after. I think I’d like to have a long competitive career. And maybe becoming a coach or something after,” answered Roxas as he looked pensive.

“That is cool! And you still have time to decide.”

“Yeah…”

Soon after they heard the sound of the train coming. As soon as it stopped at the station and opened its door, they got up from their seat and went inside the train. The ride to Central Station was mostly quiet, but they didn’t feel the need to fill the silence so that the situation would feel less awkward as they did when the met. They started to feel more comfortable with each other company even when none of them had nothing to say.

\---

When they exited from the Station, Ven looked in wonder at the tall clocktower that was on top of it. “Wow! It looks amazing, I wonder what the view is from up there,” he exclaimed.

“You can see the entire town, it’s a wonderful view,” explained Roxas as he watched the look of complete amazement that was painted in Ven’s face. “Do you want to see it?” asked Roxas.

“Wait, are you sure is it allowed to go there?” asked Ven confused, thinking it would be dangerous if people could just go up there as they wanted.

“It will be fine,” Roxas assured. Ven was not sure that answered his question but decided to trust him. He followed him back inside the station and inside a door he didn’t notice was there when he went out of the station just some minutes before. Beyond the door, there were some steep stairs which Roxas went up to almost running. Ventus followed him, fastening his pace as well. As soon as he got to the top of the building he was astounded. Roxas was not joking when he said you could see the entire town from up there.

He looked fascinated at the landscape, his hand carefully leaning to the wall. He was not a fan of big heights and the fact that there was nothing there protecting them to fall didn’t help. That confirmed to Ven that people were probably not allowed to go up there. Roxas didn’t seem to have any problem though as he went to sit to the edge of the building, much to Ventus’ dismay.

“Hey, be careful!” he called, still leaning to the wall, afraid of falling.

Roxas turned towards him confused. “Why?” he asked.

“Well, it’s dangerous!” Ventus stated as if it was obvious.

“I come here all the time. It’s fine,” he explained. Then patted next to him to tell him to come to sit down. Ventus hesitated for a moment but then decided to leave the wall and carefully went to sit next to Roxas. He watched his feet dangling from the building and it gave him a weird feeling, he had never been anywhere that high.

“How did you even find this place anyway?”

“I always wondered what the view from here was, so when I noticed that the door for the stairs that lead here is always open, I couldn’t not take advantage of the situation,” Roxas explained as he looked at the view. “And then it just sort of became my special place. I always come here when I want to have some alone time or just relax and look at the scenery.”

“Yeah, it’s a wonderful view.”

“And it’s even more wonderful during the sunset,” Roxas remarked as his hair was slowly caressed by the breeze.

“Have you ever shown anyone this place?”

“I did show my friends. They do not come here often though.”

Ventus hummed. “Thank you for showing me, this is a very special place for you.”

Roxas nodded. “It is,” he admitted.

“Can you see your home from up here? I bet you can,” commented Ventus, looking around to see if he could find Roxas’ home. “Is that one, isn’t it?” Ventus asked, pointing at a building in the landscape.

“No,” said Roxas, causing Ven to pout childishly.

“Oh, I was sure it was your house! It looked like it.”

“It was not even close!” Roxas said laughing, hitting the other lightly.

“Roxas! Don’t do that, it’s dangerous!” Ventus reprimanded, immediately clinging to the edge of the tower.

“That is my house,” Roxas pointed to another building in the scenery, ignoring what Ventus just said. Ven looked at the building Roxas was indicating and he realized Roxas was right when he said that he wasn’t even close. His house was not even in the same direction Ven pointed out before.

As they looked at the landscape, with the sun that was warming them and the breeze that was softly caressing their hair, they felt at peace. At least until the moment of peace was interrupted by the sound of a stomach grumbling.

“Looks like someone is hungry,” Roxas laughed as the other placed a hand on his stomach to stop the noise.

“Well, it’s almost lunchtime,” Stated Ven as he looked at the time from his phone.

“I know the perfect place to go eating,” Roxas said as he started to get up, Ventus following the motion and when they both were ready, he started going downstairs with Ven close behind him.

\---

Roxas took him to a place called Le Grand Bistrot, which was located on Tram Common. On their way there, Roxas couldn’t stop talking about how good the food in this restaurant was, and when Ven finally ate the first slice of the Beef Sauté he ordered he realized that Roxas was not joking when he told him that Le Grand Bistrot was one of the best restaurants in the world. The food was so good that they both didn’t resist the temptation of getting a dessert. As soon as the waiter brought him his Chocolate Mousse, he couldn’t fight the urge of snapping a picture of the dessert and send it to his siblings. He wished he and Aqua could be there as well, so they could meet Roxas and visit the town with them.

“Don’t tell Aqua, but I think this is better than what she cooks,” Ventus commented as he finally tasted his Chocolate Mousse. As he expected, it was delicious.

“Honestly, I think no one can cook better than the chef of this restaurant,” Roxas agreed after he finished munching the piece of Crêpes Suzette he had ordered. Ven couldn’t help but nod enthusiastically.

“What are you showing me this afternoon?” Ven asked, interested to know if Roxas had something in mind.

“Since we are next to Market Street, we can look around the various shops, maybe you can find something for Terra here,” Roxas suggested and Ven immediately agreed. He had already found something nice to give to Aqua, now he needed to find something for Terra. “Do you have anything in mind?” Roxas asked.

Ven took his time to think about it as he finished his dessert. He ended up shaking his head. “No, but something will come to mind.”

\---

When they finished their meal, they went around Market Street entering from shop to shop hoping to find a good gift for Terra. Since that area of the town was way more crowded than Sunset Terrace, more people stopped them to engage in small talks with Roxas and asking him who Ven was. Their default answer had become that they were friends to avoid the long explanation; even if by their look no one really believed them, both of them were grateful that no one questioned them further about it.

Finally, when they entered into a hardware store, Ven found the perfect gift for his older brother: a small kit of chisels to carve the wood. He knew Terra would love it since carving the wood was one of his favourite hobbies. Ven even had in his room a small wooden cat that his older brother carved for him some years before. Ventus was really happy with his purchase.

Roxas then told him that he wanted to show him the secret spot that Hayner mentioned the previous day. He guided him into a back alley and into a curtain, beyond which there was a small room. The furniture that decorated their hangout looked old and used, but Ven could tell that everything in that place had been through a lot of experiences and held lots of special memories.

“This is our hangout. When I was in high school, I spent a lot of time here with Hayner, Pence and Olette,” explained Roxas, as Ven looked around in awe. He looked with interest at every piece of furniture, silently wondering how many experiences Roxas and his friends had gone through in that place. He looked with curiosity at the pictures that were hung on the wall, all of them portraying the group of friends in different places, many of which he couldn’t recognize. Ven looked with attention at all the photos and at the smiling faces that were captured on them, wondering what memories each of them represented for the friends’ group.

“It looks like a very special place. It must hold a lot of memories,” commented Ven as his gaze fell on the dartboard. He noticed how Hayner and Roxas’ names were written on it so it wasn’t hard to guess who usually played with the darts.

“It does! We came here every day for so many years. It’s a really special place for me,” Roxas nodded as he went to sit on the old couch.

“Oh, look who’s there!”

The sudden voice made them both turn in surprise and they found themselves in front of Pence.

“Hey, Pence,” Roxas and Ven said in unison, and immediately looked at each other weirded out by that, causing Pence to snicker a little bit.

“You didn’t tell us you would pass here today!” commented Pence with a smile, clearly happy to see them.

“I wanted to show Ven our secret spot,” explained Roxas. “I’m showing him the town. I thought today you had work, that’s why I didn’t tell you.”

“You’re right, I just got out of work,” clarified Pence as he was trying to find something between the boxes on the corner of their hangout. “But yesterday I forgot my camera, that’s why I’m here. Ah! Found it,” explained Pence as he emerged from the boxes with his inseparable camera in his hands. “I was going to meet up with Olette and Hayner to get some ice cream, do you want to join us?” Pence offered, looking at the two.

“Thanks, but I’ll pass. I wanted to show Ven another place today,” Roxas said, turning towards Ven to make sure he was okay with that decision. Ventus looked curiously at Roxas, silently wondering what else he wanted to show him.

“We can join you for ice cream another time,” Ven offered with a smile which Pence returned.

“Okay. I’ll look forward to it!” Pence exclaimed before turning around and disappearing beyond the curtains.

As soon as Pence was gone, Ven immediately turned towards Roxas. “What else did you want to show me?” he asked eagerly.

Roxas smirked playfully. “I’ll just show you, follow me!” he said getting on his feet and prompting Ven to follow him. Ven looked at him with a questioning look then smiled back, and followed him outside the secret spot. Roxas led him back to the road they took before and they found themselves back to Tram Common. Ven started to become confused when they went through a dirty and smelly tunnel. It seemed like Roxas was bringing him in the sewers. He didn’t say anything, he just looked quizzically at the other as if wondering if that was the right way. Roxas looked at him and seemed to get what Ven was silently asking.

“We’re almost there,” he reassured.

When they finally reached the exit of the tunnel, they found themselves in the forest. As soon as they came out the tunnel, Ventus let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. It smelled really bad in there so he was happy to breathe some fresh air. He kept following Roxas who was leading him inside the forest. As they were following the path, Ven spotted the roof of a building.

When they finally reached it, Ventus was astonished and at the same time almost scared by what was in front of him. The mansion looked elegant and antique but, at the same time, it had something sinister to it. To him, it looked like the typical old mansion where families move in at the start of horror movies.

“So, this is what you wanted to show me?”

“Yup, the haunted mansion.”

“Wait, is it haunted?” Ven asked surprised. Apparently, the uneasy feeling this place was giving him was not out of nowhere.

“Someone once said that he was right here and saw a girl looking at him from that window,” Roxas explained pointing at one window on the first floor. Ven stared at it for a while but he only saw the curtain of the room moving.

“Creepy,” he commented in a whisper.

“Yeah, Pence forced us to enter to investigate but we didn’t find anything weird actually.”

“Wait. You entered the mansion?” Ventus said with a mix of horror and surprise in his voice. “Isn’t it dangerous?”.

“No, it’s a bit scary but nothing too bad… do you want to see it from inside?”

Ventus looked at him horrified, before remembering that he needed to answer the question. “I think I’ll pass for this time…” he said looking at the window again and that time he really had the impression that a girl was looking towards him.

“Wait, Roxas look!” he exclaimed, instinctively grabbing Roxas’ arm with his hand; a chill ran through his spine as he pointed towards the aforementioned window. “There is really someone,” his voice was slightly trembling. Roxas followed his line of sight towards the window, not seeing anything different about it.

“I think it’s only the wind that is moving the curtai-”

“No, I swear I saw someone behind the curtains!”

Roxas looked again at the window, and he didn’t know if it was Ven’s fear influencing him or if there was actually someone there, but for a brief moment, he saw the shape of a person behind the white curtains. It lasted for barely a second, so he couldn’t make up the traits and be sure it was a girl like the rumor suggested, but he really had the impression that there was someone who was watching them. As if on cue, they heard the noise of a bush moving and that scared them even more. They both looked towards each other, wide eyes into wide eyes as if looking in a mirror and without saying a word they both silently decided that it was better to go away from that place. They started running as fast as they could towards the town, running across the forest and stopping only before entering the tunnel that would bring them back to the town.

Ven got there first, Roxas only meters behind him. They stopped, needing to catch their breath.

“Wow, that was an experience!” exclaimed Ven, as soon as his breathing and heart rate returned to normal. “That mansion is really haunted.”

“No one ever goes there because of the rumors, but I didn’t think they were true. We even investigated the place, and Pence said that the rumors were hoaxes.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that! But I would advise against coming back to that place. I can’t believe you wanted to go in!”

“It would have been fine. Maybe you just got influenced by the rumors and so you thought you saw the girl.”

“Hey!” he admonished pointing an accusatory finger at him, feigning indignation. He was smiling though. “You saw her too! You were scared too. I saw that look on your face!” he jokingly accused, causing Roxas to laugh which in turn made Ven laugh as well.

“For real though! I already went inside the mansion and everything was fine,” Roxas said when their laughter died down. “We probably got influenced by the atmosphere.”

“Uh-uh, tell me about it,” Ventus said, looking unconvinced.

“We can always go back, and make sure if there is really a ghost or not,” he was just teasing him at that point, Ven could tell from the playful smirk on his face. That didn’t stop Ven to throw a light punch on Roxas’ shoulder.

“Go back then, but don’t come back to me crying when you will be cursed for life. I will wait for you right here,” Ventus said, trying his best to maintain a serious face, and sitting on the grass to stress his point.

“Well, now it’s almost time for dinner. We should go home.”

“Sure, play it as if you’re not scared to go back on your own.”

“I’m not scared, it’s just really late right now.” When Roxas caught sight of Ven’s incredulous expression he added, “I’m being serious!”

“Sure,” Ventus said, not quite believing him. They looked at each other for some seconds before they both started giggling uncontrollably.

“Okay, let’s go back for real now! To Central Station! Last who get there has to pay for the tickets!” Roxas announced when they both calmed down, before running into the tunnel.

“No fair! I don’t even know how to get there!” Ventus exclaimed, not losing time and following Roxas into the tunnel, not wanting to give the victory to the other. The sound of their laughter could be heard, echoing in the tunnel as the sun started to set on the town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really want to apologize with how late I am with this chapter. I didn't plan to take this long, but during the summer I've been busier than expected and I didn't really have much time to write. Anyways, I wanted to thank you for keep reading this fic, I hope you liked the new chapter!


	7. At the rink

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roxas finally teaches Ventus how to skate and Sora is there too!

Roxas was lying on the airbed staring lazily at the ceiling of his room, unable to fall asleep.

_As usual,_ he thought sighing and trying to find a better position to lay down that may help him fall asleep faster. He turned towards Ven, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully on his bed. He sighed again not knowing what to do. He knew he wasn’t going to fall asleep anytime soon and, at the same time, he didn’t want to wake Ventus up.

After spending some more minutes pondering the situation, Roxas searched around his bed for his phone and, when he found it, he unlocked the screen. He rarely ever went to Kingstagram, unless he received a notification or he was bored to hell, which was the case at the moment. He needed to do something that would help him spend some time as he waited to feel more tired.

Roxas scrolled through the screen, looking at what his friends posted. He briefly wondered where Xion always managed to find cute puppies to take photos of as he liked the picture she had just posted. He occasionally turned towards Ven to make sure that the light that came from his phone screen wasn’t going to wake him up, but he didn’t seem to stir at all.

He turned back to pay attention to his phone, watching the pictures that were in his feed and liking them without paying too much attention. He was surprised when he got a notification from Sora, which was unexpected because, if Roxas remembered correctly, Sora should have been in a flight towards Destiny Islands at the moment.

_‘Can’t sleep?’_

For a moment, Roxas wanted to ask him how could he possibly know, before remembering that he probably just noticed that he was online on Kingstagram.

_‘Shouldn’t you be on a flight right now?’_ Roxas texted back instead, ignoring Sora’s question.

_‘It got delayed, I’m stuck in Twilight Town until Wednesday‘_ Sora replied, his text was followed by a bunch of crying emojis. Roxas remembered correctly then: Sora was supposed to be in a flight at the moment. In fact, he told Roxas that, after the ice show, he would be going to Destiny Islands, his home, for a short vacation before going back to Radiant Garden for his training.

Before Roxas had the time to type out an answer, Sora had already texted him another message. _‘how’s it going with ven?’_

_‘Good. Today I showed him Twilight Town.’_ He replied immediately. He thought for some moments before typing another text. ‘ _We are going to go skating tomorrow, do you wanna join us? I don’t think Ven would mind.’_

_‘I’d love that!!! Didn’t know Ven skated!’_ Sora answered. Roxas could feel Sora’s excitement just only from his text.

_‘He doesn’t, I was gonna teach him something.’_

_‘Ohh, that’s going to be fun!!!’_ Sora texted back immediately. Roxas smiled when he read his answer, but his smile was quickly wiped away from his face when he heard a quiet whimper coming from behind him. He quickly got up in a sitting position and turned towards Ventus. For some moments everything seemed to be okay and Roxas thought he had just imagined it, but then he saw Ventus starting to move uncomfortably and mumble something in his sleep.

Roxas got up from his bed and turned on the lamp on his bedside table to get a better look at the situation. Ven had a distressed expression on his face as he kept moving uncomfortably, his forehead was soaking in sweat. Roxas immediately understood what was going on, remembering that Ventus had mentioned before that he often had nightmares. He didn’t know what Ventus was dreaming about, but he seemed really distressed and Roxas’ heart hurt seeing him in such a state.

His heart immediately started racing in his chest. What was he supposed to do? Was it better to wake him up or let him sleep, hoping that the nightmare would end? He didn’t have any idea. He had never had any experience dealing with nightmares, so he wasn’t sure what was the best way to help Ven go through his. The only thing he knew was that he hated the feeling of being useless and he wanted to make sure Ventus was alright.

“Ven?” He called softly, caressing delicately his arm to make sure he didn’t scare him. Ventus didn’t give any indication of having heard him, still mumbling something in his sleep but nothing he said made sense to Roxas.

“Ven, wake up.” He called again, slightly louder this time, tapping his shoulder lightly. This time Ventus must have heard him, as he woke up with a suffocated scream dying in his throat, causing Roxas to jolt as he wasn’t expecting the other to wake up so suddenly.

Ventus got up in a sitting position taking some deep breaths to try to make his heart rate go back to normal. He took some moments to recognize his surroundings and where he was.

“Ven?”

Ventus jolted as he wasn’t expecting someone else to be there with him. He raised his gaze and saw Roxas standing next to his bed, looking at him wide-eyed. It was then that Ventus started to remember. Right, he was in Twilight Town, at Roxas’ house. Only then Ventus noticed that Roxas’ hand was on his shoulder and he tried to focus on that contact to help himself realize that the nightmare was over, he was safe.

“Ven?” Roxas called again. His voice sounded unsure. “Are you okay?” he asked as he sat next to him on the bed and the hand that was previously on his shoulder searched for his trembling hand and held it tightly. Ventus stared at their hands intertwined for some moments before remembering that he needed to answer the question.

Ventus only nodded. He didn’t feel like talking, he felt like a lump in his throat that didn’t allow him to say anything.

Roxas was looking at him with a concerned expression, unsure on what to do to make the other feel better.

“Do you want some water? Maybe it can help you calm down.”

When Ventus answered with a small nod, Roxas immediately got up and went downstairs to get some water for him. Ventus immediately regretted that decision because if there was something he hated after having a nightmare was being alone. Fortunately, Roxas was back almost immediately with a glass of cold water he gave to Ventus. He waited patiently as Ven took some sip of water and started to feel a little more comfortable.

“Are you feeling better?” asked Roxas immediately after Ven finished drinking his glass of water and placed it on the bedside table. Ventus didn’t miss the hint of worry in his friend’s voice.

“Yeah, sorry,” he said lowering his gaze and looking at his hands that were still slightly trembling, “just another nightmare.”

Roxas sat in front of him on the bed. “Do you remember anything?”

Ven kept his eyes on his hands to avoid looking at Roxas and shook his head. For some moments they stayed in silence, Ventus kept staring at his hands while Roxas kept staring at Ventus. Then Ventus took a deep breath and decided to break the silence. “The only thing I remember is that I was alone and I… I couldn’t find anyone. Like Aqua, Terra, my dad… even you! Everyone was gone and…” Ven started to stumble on his words, feeling his eyes beginning to water. “And I felt so… so scared! I was alone and I just knew that something terrible was going to happen, but I couldn’t do anything and everyone was gone and…” the more he kept talking the more he was rushing his words, at the point that Roxas felt the need to stop him, grasping once again Ventus’ hands in his, stopping them from trembling.

“Ven, it’s okay. You’re safe now, nothing bad is going to happen.”

“Yeah…” Ventus agreed, finally raising his gaze to look at Roxas in the eyes. He untangled his hands from Roxas’ to wipe his eyes, but the flow of tears didn’t stop. He knew that his dreams weren’t real but what he felt was very much real. He instinctively leaned towards Roxas, opening his arms only to retract them right after, still unsure about how the other felt about hugs. Was it okay for him to hug Roxas? They’ve known each other for a relatively short amount of time and he didn’t want to make Roxas feel uncomfortable. Roxas didn’t miss his movements and opened his arms instead, wrapping them around Ven’s shoulders and pulling him close. Ventus’ eyes widened but as soon as the surprise subsided, he hugged the other back tightly. He closed his eyes, laying his head on Roxas’ shoulder as he let his tears fall. Being so close to Roxas made him feel safe. He was glad to find comfort in the other’s warmness. Roxas was a bit stiff in the hug, which suggested to Ven that he probably didn’t hug people that much, but he held him tightly and didn’t give any sign about wanting to let go.

They didn’t know how long they stayed in each other’s arms, not that any of them cared. When all his tears had fallen, Ventus was the first to pull from the hug. He looked at Roxas with his eyes full of gratefulness.

“Thank you,” he whispered as he wiped his eyes with his hand.

“That’s what friends are for, right?” Roxas tried to smile but failed to hide the fact that he was still worried.

“Right.”

The room fell into silence as both of them didn’t know what else to say. Roxas studied Ventus, to make sure the other was really feeling better. He took comfort in the fact that, even if his eyes were slightly red from the tears, he definitely looked more relaxed than when he had just woken up.

“You look tired,” commented Ventus after a while, waking him up from his thoughts, “you should go back to sleep.” Roxas wasn’t sure Ventus needed to know that he had not been sleeping at all that night.

“What about you?”

Ventus sighed, lying back down on the bed. “I can never sleep after a nightmare.”

“We don’t have to sleep if you don’t want to,” Roxas said, lying down next to him.

“Aren’t you tired?”

Roxas just shrugged as if it was not a big deal. “There are plenty of things we can do,” he stated before starting to list all the possibilities.

Ventus didn’t know how they ended up watching funny animal videos from Roxas’ laptop, but it proved to be effective enough as he found himself giggling uncontrollably at each of them. It didn’t help that, when he was tired, he found everything funnier than it actually was.

“This one was funny,” Ventus commented at the end of one video, without receiving any answer from his look-alike. “Rox?” He turned towards Roxas only to realize that the other was sleeping peacefully beside him. Ventus smiled at the sight, deciding to turn off Roxas’ laptop and lay it on the bedside table, making sure to be as quiet as possible to not wake the other up. He lied back down next to Roxas, closing his eyes, hoping to be able to sleep without any nightmares this time.

\---

“Do you like the beach?”

Ventus turned towards Roxas who was sprawled in his bed, looking at his phone as he was waiting for Ventus to get ready. That morning, unlike usual, when Ventus woke up he found Roxas already awake and ready for the day, busy texting someone on his phone.

“Yeah.” Ventus threw on his shirt and went towards the mirror to take care of his hair. It was always a mess in the morning, and he wanted it to be more put together even if it was usually a mess anyways during the day. He turned towards Roxas with a confused look. “Why?”

“My friends and I usually go one day to the beach during the summer. It’s like tradition, we do it every year! And this year they were planning of going tomorrow,” Roxas explained, turning towards Ventus who was still fighting against his hair, “would you like to go?”

Ventus nodded without taking his eyes off the mirror. “Sure, I bet it’s going to be fun. Plus, it’s been years since the last time I went to the beach.”

“Really?”

Ventus nodded again, “Yes, during the holidays we usually travel and visit cities. But I love the beach, I kinda miss it.” Despite fighting for five minutes with his hair, the ending result was not much different from how it began.

He sighed, _at least I tried_ , he told himself. He looked at Roxas and took comfort in seeing his hair was as messy as Ven’s, even if Roxas didn’t seem to care as much.

“Tomorrow you’re going to have a lot of fun then!” Roxas said, getting up from his bed and walking towards his closet.

Ventus looked with curiosity at Roxas as the latter was rummaging in his closet. “What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for… oh, here they are!” he exclaimed, before re-emerging from his closet. “Here, wear this!” he said throwing something to Ventus, who was hit right in the face from said object since he was not expecting Roxas to throw it at him.

When Ventus recovered from the hit, he looked at the item Roxas threw at him only to find out it was a black hat. He looked at Roxas with a questioning look. “Why should I wear a hat? It’s the middle of summer!”

“Because we’re going to the ice rink, remember?” Roxas said with a surprised look. “Oh, and Sora is coming too,” he added. Ventus was surprised by the news, but he didn’t mind. From what he saw, Sora seemed like a nice person and he was sure it would be fun spending some more time with him.

Ventus’ eyes fell again on the hat he was holding in his hands. “I still don’t understand the hat, though. The other day I was fine without one.”

Roxas sighed, wearing a hat matching the one he had given to Ven, trying to hide every strand of hair in it. “Yes, but today we’re going to a public rink and I don’t want to get recognized. You know, just in case some of the people there actually follow figure skating.”

Ventus started to understand. Even if figure skating was not the most popular sport, there was definitely a higher chance to meet some figure skating fan in a skating rink than anywhere else. That convinced him to wear the hat Roxas had given him because he didn’t want other people to accidentally mistake him for Roxas again as it happened before the ice show. He took comfort at the thought that the hat would at least help him hide the mess his hair was that morning. “Okay, I’m ready now!” he exclaimed, following Roxas out of the door.

\---

“Are you ready?” Roxas asked before entering the rink. Ven took a deep breath and nodded. He had never ice skated before and he was thrilled to try for the first time. He tentatively put a foot on the ice and immediately after the other, and he was about to fall on his back straight away if it was not for Roxas catching his arm before he could.

_That’s a great start_ , Ventus thought sarcastically.

He put a hand on the banister and started to walk around the edge of the rink, trying to understand how to stay on his feet without losing his balance without the help of the board. As he took a hesitant step forward, he saw with the corner of the eye Sora gliding across the rink, gaining speed with a few strokes. He made it look so easy, Ven hadn’t expected to have trouble staying on his feet.

Instead, Roxas was next to him, gliding slowly to stay at his pace while his face was low and he glanced nervously around. He was so busy glancing around the rink that he hadn’t even noticed that Ventus stopped to stare at him.

“What’s wrong?”

Roxas immediately turned towards Ventus startled by the question. “Uh? What’s wrong?” he repeated.

“You keep glancing around as if you’re worried someone is going to murder you or something.”

“Oh… well, I thought those people were looking at me.”

Ventus took a look around the rink and at the people that were skating, but he didn’t see anyone even remotely looking at their direction. Many of them were looking at Sora instead; even if he was just skating around without doing anything crazy, many eyes were pointed at him and he didn’t seem to mind.

“Relax, no one is even looking at us!” declared Ventus, after taking another fast look around the rink.

“You sure?” asked Roxas, adjusting the hat on his head to make sure he wouldn’t be recognized.

Ventus, instead of answering the question, started to giggle lightly unable to control himself.

“What’s so funny?” Asked Roxas finally raising his head to look at him.

“I just think it’s funny seeing you so flustered now, the other day at the ice show you were so confident and the rink was full of people watching you,” explained Ventus, taking another step forward without ever removing his hand from the board.

Roxas kept gliding slowly next to him. “But it’s different!”

“How?”

“At the show, I was there to perform. I wanted people to look at me. Now I’m just here to have fun and be normal, I don’t want people to recognize me.”

Ventus thought it must be stressing to be circled by fans. He was not used to it, obviously, but the few minutes where the fans at the ice show mistook him for Roxas were stressful for him. He couldn’t imagine it happening regularly.

He smiled at Roxas, in an attempt to comfort him. “I think you’re fine, everyone is distracted by Sora anyways.” Ventus pointed to the skater that was now taking a picture with some children who looked really excited to have met him.

“Let’s hope so,” Roxas grunted in response as he took another glance around the rink to make sure that what Ventus said was true. Then he reached towards Ventus’ free hand and held it with his, causing Ventus to turn towards him in surprise. “Come on, you’re here to learn, you can’t stay all the time near the board!” said Roxas, prompting him to let go of the banister and helping him staying on his feet instead. Ventus found himself off balance at first, without the comfort and the stability the banister was giving him, but Roxas was holding him pretty tightly and that made Ven feel safer.

“I want to try some of the tricks you can do on the ice!” Ventus said, trying to stay at the same speed Roxas was going. Roxas was actually going pretty slowly for his standard, but for Ventus, who realized very soon that he didn’t have a good sense of balance, it seemed fast.

Roxas smiled. “First, you need to be able to stay on your feet on your own.”

Sora reached them as soon as he was done talking with the children he had taken a picture with. “What did I miss?” he asked, holding Ventus’ free hand so that Ventus was now in between the two skaters who were helping him staying on his feet.

Roxas shrugged. “Nothing much, I didn’t teach him anything yet.”

“It’s way harder than I thought. You two make it look so easy!” Ventus exclaimed, obtaining some words of encouragement from Sora and a smile from Roxas. They skated across the rink a couple of times to help Ven gain some confidence and balance on the ice.

“Okay, I think I may be ready to go on my own now,” said Ventus, letting their hands go. He tried to take a few small strokes on his own, spreading his arms to help himself balancing on the ice but he realized quickly that he was going to fall and, in a desperate attempt to stay on his feet, he clung to Roxas’ waist. Roxas was not expecting Ventus to lean on him so suddenly and that caused him to lose his balance as well, causing both of them to fall face-first on the ice, with Sora who was trying his best to hold back his laughter.

Ventus had to admit it, he didn’t expect to have so much trouble staying on his feet and seeing little children, who looked six at best, in the middle of the rink spinning or doing difficult tricks made him feel even worse. It didn’t help that since Sora joined them all the eyes had been glued to them and that made him feel even more nervous.

Roxas didn’t have trouble to get up on his feet and lent him a helping hand that Ven took gratefully since he didn’t have any idea on how to get up without slipping and falling again.

“You can do this, Ven!” Sora encouraged with a big smile on his face, giving him advice on how to maintain his balance without their help. Ventus tried again to take a few strokes on his own, both Roxas and Sora at his sides. This time they were ready to catch him if he fell, but Ventus managed to stay on his feet.

“Ven, you’re doing it!”

Ventus smiled, happy that he finally managed to do some strokes without falling, but he suddenly realized that he was getting ahead of himself as he, once again, lost his balance and was going to fall again if Roxas was not ready to catch him before he could.

“It’s so hard, I keep falling!” whined Ventus as he once again tried to do some strokes on his own, as Roxas and Sora patiently followed him.

“It’s your first time on the ice, Ven. Don’t be too hard on yourself,” noted Roxas with a smile as they were able to skate across one side of the rink without Ven falling. He was finally getting the handle of it and was finally able to complete one full round across the rink without any help.

“See? You’re getting better!” encouraged Sora. “I think he’s ready to learn something!” he continued, turning towards Roxas who nodded in agreement. It was then that Ven remembered that what they had been doing until then was the easy part.

“Okay, we’re going to start with something easy!” Ventus immediately hoped that Roxas’ idea of ‘easy’ was the same as his. “Look!” Roxas positioned himself next to his doppelganger. He positioned himself so that the heels of his blades were touching and he pushed forward until his toes touched, drawing the shape of a lemon on the ice. “This is a swizzle,” he explained at the end of his demonstration.

Ventus tried to repeat what Roxas had just shown him, he tentatively put his feet so that the heels of the blade would touch and tried to make the shape of a lemon on the ice. Contrary to his expectations, he was able to do it without falling, causing the excitement of both Roxas and Sora.

After that, Roxas and Sora showed him more tricks and moves he could do on the ice. Ventus tried all of them, some he was able to do on his own, while for others he needed the help of one of the skaters to do them without falling. He especially liked spirals, because even if he was unable to do them unassisted (how could he balance on one leg when he still had trouble balancing on both legs?) he was at least able to hit some nice positions in them. Years of dancing turned out to be useful at least for his flexibility.

In the end, the hat didn’t prove to be effective enough for people to not recognize Roxas. Since they already recognized Sora, it didn’t get difficult for them to figure out who he was as well, especially after they started to show Ventus some moves. Thankfully for Ventus, no one tried to talk to him, probably because of his clear inexperience on the ice that made apparent to everyone that he couldn’t possibly be a competitive figure skater.

Ventus was resting by the board, as he looked at Roxas and Sora talking with some fans that went to them to ask for a picture. Even if both of them were smiling and being kind to the people who approached them, Sora was the one carrying most of the conversation for both of them, to which Roxas seemed relieved about. Ventus hadn’t realized until then how shy and quiet Roxas could get around people he didn’t know since with him and his friends he was always pretty outgoing. It reminded him of the first impression he had of Roxas during the time he was waiting for his doppelganger to answer his message and he had started to look at every video existent about him on the internet. Ventus suddenly understood why Roxas had immediately run away, the day of the show, when the first people from the audience started to enter the rink, as well as his worry when they first entered the public rink. Meeting fans seemed to be a nerve-wracking experience for him.

As it was starting to get late and fewer people were on the ice, Roxas started to relax more and they even started to joke around. At some point, Roxas got a hold of his hand and brought him along with him just skating across the skating rink. This time he went at his own speed, prompting Ven to go at his pace. This proved to be especially entertaining for Ven, who had finally gained some confidence on the ice and trusted Roxas to not make him fall since he was not used going with such speed across the rink. Roxas had a pretty good hold on him and made sure that he did not fall or accidentally walked across some of the people that were just skating on the rink. It was fun for Roxas too, especially because he found amusing how worried Ventus was every time he thought they were going to hit someone but they always avoided them at the last second.

\---

After hours spent skating, all of them were hungry and were looking for a nice dinner. They decided to go to a fast-food restaurant because, even if it may not be the healthiest food for two athletes, everyone deserves to eat it every once in a while.

The fast-food was inside a big mall located not too far away from Twilight Town. Inside the mall, there were many types of shops and Ventus had to resist the urge to run inside the bookstore when they walked next to it on their way to get food. At first glance, it seemed way bigger than the one he and Roxas visited the day before, but he had to remind himself that his bookshelf was already on the verge of exploding because he had already too many books.

“So, Ven, what did you learn today?” Sora asked, bringing him back to their conversation, as they were walking through the mall on their way to eat dinner.

“That I’m never going to be a figure skater,” Ven answered jokingly, making both Sora and Roxas laugh.

“I think you did well for being your first time on the ice.”

“Yeah, we took years to be at the level we are now,” agreed Sora, smiling encouragingly at Ven who returned the gesture.

“Honestly, I thought I would do better. Some kids were better than me! I spent most of the time falling...”

“If it makes you feel better, Sora once fell in front of thousands of people while he was doing absolutely nothing,” Roxas said gaining a confused look from Ventus and an eye-roll from Sora.

“It happened _one_ time!” Sora whined, crossing his arms pretending to be offended by what Roxas just said.

“It was too funny!” commented Roxas, struggling to not laugh at the memory. Then he turned towards Ventus and explained, “he had just finished the program of his life, broke a world record and then fell during the victory ceremony.”

“I didn’t notice the carpet!”

“Yeah, because a giant red carpet on the ice is hard to notice.”

“If we are going to talk about embarrassing moments, why don’t you tell Ven of that one time you forgot your own program instead?” Sora retorted as a playful grin formed on his face.

“To my defence, I only learned it the week before and I tried to improvise the part I forgot,” Roxas said turning towards Ventus to explain to him what happened. “But yes, that was embarrassing,” he admitted in the end.

“At least it didn’t happen during a competition,” conceded Sora.

“Thank God, or it would have been a total disaster.”

Ventus glanced at the two playfully bickering with each other, not recognizing any of the memories any of them was recalling. Well, obviously he wouldn’t. He wasn’t there. The thought of not being part of any of Roxas’ memories made him feel slightly sad. He wondered if he was ever going to be an important part of Roxas’ life as Sora and his other friends were. If one day the two of them would be able to recall memories from their past and laugh together at them.

Ventus bit the insides of his cheek trying to stop his train of thoughts, knowing perfectly well that he was being unreasonable. Roxas had been nothing but nice and caring during the few days he had been there. Everything was going well between them, there was no reason to think they would stop being friends. Yet, Ventus couldn’t help but think about the DNA tests they did a couple of days before. What would happen if they didn’t get the results they expected? Would they still be friends?

“Ven?” His mind turned back to reality when he noticed Roxas’ arm waving in front of his face and two concerned expressions looking at him.

“Are you okay?” asked Roxas, a hint of worry in his voice.

Ventus tried his best to master the best smile he could at the moment. “Yes, sorry. I’m just really hungry.” It wasn’t entirely a lie: his stomach was grumbling in need of food.

“That’s good because we have arrived.”

He had been so distracted by his thoughts, that he didn’t realize that they were in front of the place they would eat dinner in. Since it was dinner time, the fast-food restaurant was full of people in line and finding a free table was really difficult. To save time, Roxas offered to stay in line to pay for their meals while Sora and Ventus went to the search of a free table. The search was not easy, but after slaloming between a lot of tables full of people they managed to find one for the three of them.

Roxas reached them after some minutes with their orders. Ventus looked at the three burgers feeling his mouth watering. He couldn’t wait to eat. As they were dividing the food they ordered between the three of them, Roxas realized that there was something wrong.

“They gave me only two drinks…” he sighed as he checked his receipt. “I’ll be back,” he said before going back to the cash check to ask for the other drink.

Ventus looked at Roxas who was going back at the cash check, while Sora eyed their plates and grinned at Ventus. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Ventus turned towards him with curiosity. “What are you thinking?”

“We should prank him.”

Ventus’ mouth immediately turned upwards, as he became particularly interested in their conversation. “What were you planning?”

“Roxas hates ketchup,” Sora whispered, causing Ventus to lean more towards him, even though Roxas couldn’t possibly hear them considering he was still at the cash check.

Ventus eyed Roxas’ burger and the ketchup sachet the fast-food gave them. “So, we’re going to put ketchup in his burger?”

Sora nodded. He turned towards the cask check to make sure that Roxas was still there, meanwhile, Ventus took the ketchup and spread it inside Roxas’ burger, ensuring that from the outside the hamburger seemed perfectly normal so that Roxas wouldn’t notice.

“Perfect,” exclaimed Sora as he looked at Roxas’ burger, “he’s not going to suspect anything.”

“He’s coming back,” Ventus said as he saw Roxas walking back to their table with his drink.

Roxas came back to the table, eyeing them suspiciously. He didn’t miss the grin that was painted on their face. “What’s wrong?” he asked, as Ventus and Sora were looking at him and then at each other with a strange look on their face.

“Nothing, we were waiting for you to come back,” smiled Sora as Roxas sat on his seat next to Ventus.

“Yeah, we’re really hungry,” added Ventus smiling innocently at Roxas.

Roxas kept eyeing them suspiciously because he could tell that something was not right but not what it was. “Were you talking about me?” asked Roxas, alternating his gaze between his friends, but both shook their heads. Roxas turned towards Ventus, “did he tell you something embarrassing about me?”

Ventus immediately shook his head, probably too fast to be considered truthful. “No, we were talking about…” Ventus was for a moment at a loss of words. He had never been a good liar and he wasn’t good at making up stories on the spot.

“I was telling Ven that it sucks that my flight was cancelled. I hope I will be able to take the plane tomorrow.”

Ventus immediately nodded in agreement, glad that Sora was better at lying than he was.

Roxas looked at both of them incredulously. “I feel like you’re not telling the truth,” he said, taking a fry from his plate and eating it, “you’re both acting weird.”

“We are just tired, it’s been a long day,” commented Sora before taking a big bite of his hamburger.

“Yes, we skated a lot too, I’m really tired,” Ventus agreed.

“Okay…” Roxas said, unconvinced, before taking his burger in his hands. Ventus and Sora exchanged a knowing glance, waiting for Roxas to take a bite.

When Roxas took a bite and started munching his burger, he immediately realized that something was wrong. He started munching more slowly, trying to understand what was the weird taste in his mouth. When he realized it was ketchup, he had to stop himself from gagging in the middle of the place.

Sora and Ventus burst out laughing at his reaction, but at some point, Ventus started to feel worried because Roxas’ face turned green and he seemed to be about to throw up. He offered Roxas a tissue which Roxas utilized to spit the piece of burger he had in his mouth, while his friends were dying of laughter at his disgusted reaction.

“That was disgusting. Why did you do that?” Roxas exclaimed, after taking a sip of water to try and cancel the taste from his mouth.

“It was a prank!” exclaimed Sora still giggling at the thought of how disgusted Roxas looked when he was tasting the burger.

“I hate you,” Roxas said passionately at Sora, causing the brunette to laugh even more. Roxas rolled his eyes at Sora’s reaction and then he turned towards Ventus, “I hate both of you,” he stressed to make his point clearer. Roxas’ declaration didn’t achieve anything, his two friends were still dying of laughter, causing Roxas to be even more annoyed. “Stop laughing, this is not funny, this is horrible!”

“I’m sorry, but your reaction is too funny,” commented Ventus wiping the tears from the corner of his eyes.

“You don’t seem sorry at all,” Roxas grumbled crossing his arm.

“You should have seen your face, it was like this,” Sora said before doing an impression of Roxas’ disgusted face, causing Ventus to crack up, while Roxas stared at him unimpressed. Or at least he tried to, none of his friends missed the hint of a smile showing on his face.

“You thought it was funny too,” Ventus said, pointing at Roxas’ smile causing Roxas to roll his eyes again.

“One day I will take my revenge,” he whispered, as Sora and Ventus finally started to calm down and stopped laughing. Since he would refuse to eat his hamburger now that it was full of ketchup, Ventus was kind enough to offer to exchange his burger with Roxas’. Roxas didn’t know how Ventus could eat something so disgusting without throwing up, but he gladly accepted the offer.

“I didn’t eat it and I didn’t put ketchup in it, trust me,” Ventus said, noticing that Roxas was eyeing suspiciously his new burger.

“It’s too late for that,” he commented, causing Sora and Ven to giggle again. At that point even Roxas smiled a little bit, unable to put a mad front at the two. Not that it worked, anyways. “I’m starting to regret making you meet.”

“What? But I’m having a lot of fun with Ven!”

“Me too. We should hang out more often,” Ventus agreed.

“You’re having even too much fun…” he grumbled, before taking a hesitant bite at his new burger and being relieved at the fact that this time no ketchup was in it.

When they finished eating their dinner, Roxas and Ventus drove Sora to the hotel he was staying in so that he could get some rest before travelling to Destiny Islands.

“Your flight is tomorrow then?” Roxas asked when they arrived in front of Sora’s hotel.

Sora nodded. “Yes, if it doesn’t get cancelled another time.” He snickered. “But I’m happy I could spend another day with you guys!” Sora commented, smiling brightly, welcoming both of them in his arms in a hug that they both returned.

“I’ll see you in Radiant Garden then,” Roxas said after pulling out from their group hug. Sora smiled at him and nodded before turning towards his hotel and walking inside.

“Have a safe flight,” added Ventus, waving at Sora before he disappeared inside the building.

“We should go home too. It’s being a long day.”

Ventus nodded, following Roxas back to his car. He looked up at the sky and smiled seeing the stars shining bright above them, even if some of them were obscured by some clouds. Seeing the stars always made him feel happy. He turned towards Roxas, some steps in front of him, and smiled before running towards him. He was already thrilled to know what the next day would bring for them and he couldn’t wait to create more memories with Roxas. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And chapter 7 is finally here! I think this was the chapter I struggled the most writing for some reasons, but I'm glad I've been finally able to finish it :)  
> Thank you for reading the new chapter, I really hope you liked it!


	8. Late night conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roxas and Ventus have to figure out how to spend their day at home after the bad weather ruins their plan to go to the beach.

Ventus squashed the controller’s buttons intensely as he was engaged in the race in front of his eyes. He couldn’t let his character lose the race, and he wasn’t going to allow the other player to win. Ven turned briefly towards Roxas only to see a look of utter focus on the game; he didn’t even seem to notice that he was staring at him. Ven turned back to pay attention to the television screen. He only needed to get to the finishing line and he would win the race. He was so close.

Roxas tried to stop him, shooting at him with the green shell, but Ventus avoided it and was able to win. He heard the victory music playing as the game showed the results, with Ventus’ character being first and Roxas’ being only a few seconds behind.

Roxas huffed, dropping his controller on the couch. “I can’t believe you’re so good at this game,” he said, turning towards Ven who was grinning widely, satisfied with his win.

“After years of playing with my family, I know my ways,” he explained, proud of himself for once. He at least knew how to win a race in Mario Kart. Or many races, as his matches against Roxas showed.

Roxas hummed something in understanding, leaning back on the couch, looking nowhere in particular. “Is it still raining?”

Ventus turned towards the big window in the living room, only to see a copious amount of rain falling from the sky and hitting the ground. He nodded, causing Roxas to sigh quietly.

“Out of all days it could rain, it had to be today,” he complained with another sigh. When that morning they had woken up only to be met by a big downpour of rain, they were really upset. Roxas especially was looking forward to spending a day at the beach with Ventus and his other friends, only for the weather to ruin all their plans. Even if the beach they were planning to go to was not exactly next to Twilight Town, the weather wasn’t looking that great there either.

Ventus looked at Roxas with a sympathetic look on his face. “Come on, we can always go tomorrow. The weather forecast said that it will be sunny.”

“I hope so.”

“Is it really important to go to the beach with your friends, uh?”

“It’s not just that. As you said, we can always go tomorrow,” Roxas said, getting up from the couch, “but I’ve planned everything about what we should do this week, and now my plans are ruined and we are stuck at home.”

“I’m sure there are plenty of things we can do from home,” Ventus said optimistically.

“Like what?”

“I can always give you a rematch,” Ventus said with a playful smirk. He knew perfectly well what Roxas’ response would have been and laughed at the disgruntled expression Roxas gave him. Not that he didn’t have fun, but after being defeated seven times in a row, he needed a break. He knew that Ventus was good at Mario Kart, but he didn’t expect him to be that strong. Besides, they already spent all morning playing videogames.

“Maybe we can bake something?” Roxas suggested as he turned off the television and the console.

“Do you know how to bake?” Ventus asked with a concerned expression painted on his face. He suddenly remembered that one time when Terra convinced him to help him bake some muffins. Let’s just say it didn’t end well for the muffins. Or the kitchen.

“I help my mom sometimes,” Roxas explained, causing Ventus to sigh in relief. That probably meant he was going to have a better experience than the one he had with Terra, so he immediately agreed to the idea, thinking it would have been fun.

As he followed Roxas to the kitchen, Ventus found out that Roxas’ mother really liked to bake, even if he guessed he should have suspected as much considering how many desserts she baked for him the first day he got to Twilight Town. Apparently, Roxas told her that Ventus really liked sweets and she acted accordingly. She had a collection of baking books on the kitchen’s shelves, so they took the book that seemed to have the easiest recipes and tried to find something they could bake with the ingredients they found in the fridge.

“Did you never bake before? I thought you did. You always talk about your sister’s desserts,” Roxas asked as they were collecting all the ingredients they needed and put them on the table, to make sure to not forget anything during the process.

“Let’s just say I’m not really allowed into the kitchen,” Ventus said as he was reading the recipe of the cake they chose to bake, to make sure they took all the ingredients they needed.

“Why?” Roxas asked, already muffling a laugh, “are you that bad?”

“I’m not! It was Terra’s fault!” Ventus complained, turning towards Roxas, finding him busy looking intensely at the oven, as if it could answer him all the questions about the universe. “What are you doing?” he asked, perplexed.

Roxas turned towards him with an interrogative look, “oh, I’m just trying to remember how to make the oven to preheat,” he explained, before turning the oven’s thermostat to the temperature stated in the recipe book, “I think it works like this?”

“I guess so,” Ventus answered, even if he actually didn’t have any idea about how it worked. He was about to suggest asking Roxas’ mother for help, but his friend seemed satisfied with his response so they should be fine. Or at least, he hoped so.

Roxas got up from the floor and took a bowl and a wooden spoon from the cabinet before giving them to Ventus. “What did you and Terra even do? Destroy the kitchen?” Roxas asked, resuming their initial topic of conversation.

Ventus shook his head as he poured the flour into the bowl. Roxas decided it was best to not comment on the fact that a good quarter of the flour ended up on the counter instead of the bowl.

“It was Aqua’s birthday, we wanted to surprise her, and what better way to surprise her than baking some muffins? It seemed like a great idea at first. We were following all the steps, everything was going perfectly.”

“What went wrong then?” Roxas asked as he took the eggs they prepared previously. Ventus watched with interest as Roxas beat them into the mixture and some eggshells ended up in the bowl.

“I know I’m not the expert here, but I’m pretty sure the eggshells should not go in the cake,” he commented, gaining an eye roll from Roxas.

“Oh, really?” he asked sarcastically, “I wouldn’t have known if you didn’t tell me,” he said, gaining a light slap from Ventus, who was laughing at his reaction. Roxas grinned playfully at him and picked up some flour Ventus dropped on the counter before and threw it at Ventus, who reflexively stepped back.

“Roxas!” he admonished, finding himself and the kitchen’s floor covered with flour, “you did a mess!” he said laughing.

“You look ridiculous,” Roxas laughed, pointing at Ventus, who was trying to shake away all the flour Roxas poured on him. As he saw that on the kitchen’s counter there was still some flour, Ventus got an idea. He picked up some of it and threw it at Roxas as revenge.

Roxas was so busy laughing at Ventus, he didn’t even notice what the latter was doing until he found himself covered in flour.

“ _You_ look ridiculous,” Ventus said back, this time was his turn laughing. If he had to deal with being covered in flour, it was only right that Roxas had to deal with it too.

“I guess I asked for it,” Roxas commented, grinning at him as he tried to shake off some flour from his body.

“You totally did,” Ventus agreed.

When they both calmed down from all the laughing, Roxas took two small spoons and gave one to his friend so they could work together to remove the eggshells from the mixture.

“Don’t think I forgot you were telling me about your baking fail,” he reminded, looking at Ventus with attention, “what happened in the end?” he asked, as they finished removing all the eggshells from the mixture.

“We put salt instead of sugar… and didn’t realize it,” Ventus said as he took the wooden spoon again and continued to mix all the ingredients in the bowl.

Roxas laughed genuinely at the story. “You didn’t even try one before giving it to her?”

Ventus just shook his head slowly. “We didn’t and let’s just say that Aqua was not pleased with her birthday gift. The kitchen was a mess too! But it was Terra that took all the ingredients, it was not my fault!”

Roxas was bent with laughter, and Ventus almost rolled his eyes at him. He didn’t think the story was that funny, especially at the memory of Aqua being mad at them. It didn’t happen often to see Aqua that mad, and Ventus genuinely thought she was almost scary when she was.

“Poor Aqua,” commented Roxas when he finally calmed down, wiping the tears from his eyes, “I hope you at least didn’t make her clean the kitchen.”

“Hey, of course we didn’t! We are not that horrible,” Ventus commented, almost offended by Roxas’ implication. “We then brought her to a restaurant, and she forgave us, but now we’re not allowed to bake anything ever again.”

“Maybe if the cake turns out well, you can give her a reason to allow you into the kitchen again,” Roxas suggested, to which Ventus could only agree with.

“Yeah, when the cake will be ready, I will send a picture to Aqua so I can finally have proof that I can do something decent in the kitchen!” Ventus agreed. “I think the mixture is ready by the way,” he said, giving Roxas the bowl so he could judge for himself. Roxas watched it briefly and then put a finger in the mixture and brought it to his mouth to taste the cream.

“Is it good?” asked Ventus expectantly, and Roxas nodded in response and signalled to him to try it too. Ventus did the same and was pleased with the taste. He couldn’t believe he was finally doing something good in the kitchen, other than clean the dishes.

“At least we put sugar in it!” joked Roxas, causing Ventus to laugh as well, “I bet it’s going to be delicious!”

After they poured the mixture into the cake tin and put it into the oven, they were once again at a loss in what they could do to spend time. They needed to wait for the cake to be ready, and then they needed to wait for it to cool down before they could decorate it.

“What are we going to do now?” asked Roxas, staring at the cake in the oven, already feeling bored again.

“Maybe we should clean the kitchen,” Ventus suggested, looking at the mess they did. To be fair, it was not nearly as bad as that one time he cooked with Terra, but there was flour everywhere.

Roxas stopped looking at the cake baking and looked at the room. “Yes, we should,” he agreed, hoping his mother wouldn’t go in the kitchen to see what they were doing before they were done cleaning. He thought it was better not to find out what her reaction to the mess they had caused would be. Hence, with a sigh, the two blonds started cleaning the room.

\---

After they finished cleaning, Roxas and Ventus were sitting at the kitchen table talking and waiting for the cake to be ready, when Roxas’ mother made her way into the room with what looked like a book in her hands.

“What are you doing?” she asked, eyeing at them curiously. It was unusual finding them hanging out in the kitchen.

“We baked a cake,” Roxas answered readily, gesturing to the oven. The black-haired woman took a look at what they were baking, and she was impressed.

“Wow, it looks like it’s going to be good,” she exclaimed, causing Ventus and Roxas to exchange a proud grin. Ventus couldn’t wait for the cake to be ready so he could send a picture to Aqua. He had to prove that he was a good baker if he wanted to.

“What do you have in your hands?” Roxas asked.

“Oh, right!” exclaimed the woman, remembering the actual reason she went in the kitchen to begin with, “I was cleaning the house, and look what I’ve found,” she said, showing them what she was holding in her hands. It looked like an album of some sort.

“What is it?”

“Your photo album with all your childhood pictures.” She gave the album to Ventus who took it looking at her confused.

“Mom!” Roxas groaned, covering his face with his hand, “why would you do that?” He was going to bet his mom had been dying to show them that album and had just been waiting for the perfect moment to embarrass him in front of Ventus.

Ventus had to stop himself from laughing at the almost horrified expression Roxas had on his face as he was staring bewildered at his mother. He hadn’t even thought about the possibility to look at Roxas’ childhood pictures, but now that Roxas’ mother found the photo album, he was not going to complain. He was very curious to look at all the pictures.

“You were complaining about not knowing what to do, and I figured Ven would enjoy knowing more about your childhood.”

“Oh, yes!” Ventus exclaimed excitedly, already browsing between the pages of the album, under Roxas’ horrified gaze.

“Besides, you were so cute as a child,” she added, caressing his cheek in a sign of motherly affection.

“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Roxas, distancing himself from his mother to avoid being further embarrassed in front of his friend, “am I not cute now?”

“Of course, you’re still cute, honey.”

“Mom! Stop it,” Roxas whispered for only his mother to hear, even if Ventus heard him perfectly well and smiled at the scene. Fortunately for Roxas, his mother decided it was best to listen to him and cast him an apologetic smile before leaving the room.

As Roxas’ mom predicted, Ventus was having a lot of fun seeing Roxas’ childhood pictures. Even Roxas found it more enjoyable than he expected. He hadn’t seen most of those pictures for years, and it was weird taking a glance at his past.

“When was that?” Ventus asked, pointing to one of the many photos.

“That was my first day of kindergarten, I think. I didn’t look really happy.”

“Not at all,” laughed Ventus, observing the picture with attention. Roxas was still a small kid and was wearing a red school apron and was pouting. It was not hard to tell that he had been forced from his parents to take a picture for the first day of school. Ven was sure he still had somewhere the pictures his father took of him every time a new school year started. In his hands, the young Roxas portrayed in the photo was holding a Pinocchio school bag.

“I really liked Pinocchio when I was a child. I remember I always asked my mom to read it to me at bedtime.”

“You were obsessed with it,” intervened his mother, who heard them talking as she went into the kitchen to take a glass of water, “I bought you a wonderful fairy tales book that year and every time I tried to read you something else, you started complaining that you wanted to read Pinocchio,” the black-haired woman continued with a smile plastered on her face, recalling the time when her son was still a small child. The two blond guys both laughed at the story.

“Mom, it’s not my fault Pinocchio is so much better than everything else,” stated Roxas jokingly.

As Ventus turned the pages of the album, looking carefully at all the pictures, he found himself laughing at a picture of Roxas dressed as a little pig. When Roxas saw the picture, his cheeks turned red and he immediately covered his face with his hands, trying to hide his embarrassment.

“Don’t make me remember about it!” he exclaimed through laughter.

“Why? What happened?” asked Ven curiously, unable to stop his laughter.

“The kindergarten I went to did a school play at the end of every school year. That year we were doing the Three Little Pigs.”

“And you were doing one of the little pigs,” continued Ventus. “There’s nothing bad with it, you looked cute actually,” said Ventus, holding back another fit of laughter.

“Yeah, except that was my first time doing something like that and I was a shy kid,” explained Roxas, “a _really shy_ kid,” empathised the blond. “As soon as I went on stage, I realized how many people were watching.” It was a small school and only close family members could come to watch the play since the school theatre was not so big, but for him as a kid that was many people. “I completely forgot what I was supposed to do, so I just ran backstage and started crying. It was really embarrassing,” explained the blond, his face still covered by his hands. “My teacher tried to convince me to go back on stage since I was one of the main characters my role was rather important, but I refused to. I probably ruined the whole play.” Ventus held back another laugh and started rubbing the other back, trying to make him feel better.

“Well, if it makes you feel better, I did worse when I was a child.”

Roxas finally uncovered his head and looked at him curiously, silently asking him to tell him what happened.

“When I was six, I think, I went to a dance recital. It was one of the first I went to, and I was really nervous. I was so nervous that I literally peed on stage.”

“You’re joking!” Roxas started laughing hard, and Ven soon joined him in his laughter.

“I wish I was joking!” Ventus retorted. “I thought everyone would make fun of me until the end of the days but everyone forgot about it pretty soon. I was so embarrassed.” 

When they both calmed down, Ventus turned the page of the photo album when his attention was captured by another picture that showed a young Roxas holding hands with a raven-haired girl, who had her hair wrapped in two pigtails at the top of her head. It was not hard for Ventus to guess that the little girl was Xion when she was a child. 

“I remember when this picture was taken!” commented Roxas, smiling at the memory. “It was the day we met, the first day of elementary school. We didn’t even talk, we just smiled at each other and started holding hands.”

Ventus smiled at the thought. Kids are really simple, they don’t need words to become friends. And that was the start of an amazing friendship considering Xion and Roxas were still best friends at the moment. Ventus felt guilty about feeling a bit jealous of Roxas. He was a really friendly person, since when he was a kid, but he didn’t hear from his childhood friends anymore.

“What about Naminé?” he asked. He knew that Roxas, Xion, and Naminé were the best of friends now, but there wasn’t any picture that portrayed her in the photo album.

“Xion introduced me to her when we were older. She transferred to Radiant Garden when we were in middle school, I think,” Roxas stopped talking for a moment, staring at the ceiling trying to recall the memory, “Naminé is from Radiant Garden and they became quick friends. Xion always came back to Twilight Town to meet her relatives during the holidays. One year she invited Naminé and introduced her to me. But Naminé and I became much closer when I moved to Radiant Garden as well and we could hang out much more, not only during the holidays.”

Ventus listened with attention before a realization came to his mind. “Wait, is that why you moved to Radiant Garden?”

“I mean, the primary reason was that Phil had a good reputation as a coach! But yeah, I took into consideration the fact that I would have been able to see Xion and Naminé much more training there,” Roxas confessed.

“That’s cool,” Ventus said, turning the page once again, before being distracted by a weird smell, “do you smell it too?”

Roxas stopped watching the pictures to sniff the air when he noticed a weird burnt smell. They turned towards each other pondering for some moments the situation before getting up in a hurry.

“The cake!” they exclaimed in unison as they turned towards the oven. Roxas hastily turned it off, wore some gloves, and took out the cake tin.

“Oh, no!” whined Ventus at the sight of the burnt cake they put a lot of effort into doing. “There is something edible in it?” asked Ventus trying to be hopeful but knowing there was probably little they could do about it. What was supposed to be a delicious cake, turned into what looked like a piece of coal.

“Roxas, what is this smell?” asked Roxas’ mom running into the kitchen and finding the two blonds looking miserably at the burnt cake. “Did you burn it? Roxas, why didn’t you put a timer?” asked his mother with a sigh.

“I forgot…”

“Roxas…” sighed his mother.

“It’s not only my fault! Ventus forgot too. Right, Ven?”

“I told you I was not allowed in the kitchen…” said Ventus miserably. Maybe Aqua was right, two times in the kitchen and two failures. Luckily, he hadn’t told his sister they had been baking, or else he would be forced to share the ending result with her. If Aqua found out, he would likely never be allowed in the kitchen ever again for real.

\---

After their baking fiasco, they decided it was better to spend the evening doing something more relaxing and to go to bed earlier than usual since the next day they would need to wake up early to finally go to the beach.

They were in their bedroom with their light already off, and Ventus was about to fall asleep when he heard Roxas’ voice calling him.

“Ven,” Roxas whispered again from his airbed as he was looking at Ventus, who had his back towards him.

“What is it?” he whispered back, his voice sounding sleepy.

“Were you sleeping?”

Ven shook his head as he had not fallen asleep yet, not realizing that Roxas couldn’t see him in the room's darkness. “What’s wrong?” he questioned quietly, slowly turning towards him even if the room was dark and couldn’t make up Roxas’ features even if he was in front of him. “Can’t sleep?”

Roxas shook his head no even if he wasn’t sure the other could see him. “I was just thinking…”

“About?”

“Do you think we are twins?”

Ven took some moments to process the question, mostly because he wasn’t sure he had heard the other correctly. It seemed such a random question, especially to ask in the middle of the night. He thought everything that happened from the moment he saw Roxas on tv some months before to that moment happened out of the belief that they might be twins.

“I think so?” Ven responded unsurely, not sure of what the other wanted to talk about. “Don’t you?”

Roxas took some moments to answer. “Yes…”

Ventus didn’t miss how unsure Roxas’ voice sounded. “What? Aren’t you happy to be my twin?” he asked jokingly, making Roxas smile as well.

“It’s not that, it’s just that…” Roxas interrupted himself for some moments to take the time to think about how to better phrase his question. “What if when the test comes back it says that we are not?” Roxas asked, revealing what was actually on his mind. “What is gonna happen then?” Roxas blurted out. He hadn’t thought much of this possibility before, but now that they did the testing and only needed to wait for the results, the moment they would find out the truth was getting closer and closer. He was getting insecure that their relationship was only built up around the fact that they thought they were related. Would their relationship be the same if they were just strangers that randomly ended up looking the same?

Ven at that point sat up on his bed and turned on the lamp that was on the bedside table because he preferred to have the conversation being able to see Roxas in the eyes.

“What we want to happen, I guess,” Ven answered. He often thought about that possibility during the months they were only video calling and chatting, and even more during the week they were spending together. “You know, I often thought about it during the last months. I was always thinking ‘what if we are not twins?’, because I probably will be disappointed if you are not my brother,” said Ven reassuringly, climbing on Roxas’ bed and sitting beside him to be in a better position to look at him in the eyes. His hand searched for his doppelganger’s hand and squeezed a bit, to reassure him. “I think we are twins, but even if we are not, is it really that important? After all, we both know that blood bonds aren’t necessarily better than heart bonds.”

Roxas nodded, thinking about his mom. They were not blood-related, but they still loved each other unconditionally. Ven could say the same with Terra, Aqua, and his father. They were family no matter what.

“I’m having a lot of fun with you this week, and I want to spend much more time with you. Even if we end up not being brothers, I still would want to spend as much time as possible with you. Nothing would change between us.”

“Really?” Roxas asked, almost in disbelief.

“Really,” Ven confirmed, squishing his hand to let him know that he was there.

Roxas sniffled silently, using his free wrist to cover the tears that were threatening to fall from his eyes. Ventus tried to comfort him, holding his hand tighter to let him know that he was there.

“It’s so weird,” he sobbed, “for all my life, I always felt like something was missing. I always thought that maybe I was missing my biological parents, and I felt guilty about it, because my mom gave everything to me and I felt like I didn’t appreciate her enough. But it was not it.” Roxas tried to wipe his tears with his free hand. “When I met you, I realized that it was you I was missing, not our parents. Since when you are here, I feel like everything is fine now. Like everything is how it’s supposed to be, you know?” Roxas mumbled through his tears. “And I guess I’m scared because now the test can say that you and I are not related and all of this will end.”

“It won’t end if we don’t want it to,” Ventus said, letting go of Roxas’ hand. Roxas looked a little disappointed when he let go, but soon after Ven wrapped him in his arms and held him tightly. “Blood or not, I love you unconditionally. You are my brother now, that you want it or not.” Roxas laughed quietly at what Ventus said.

“Anyway, I really hope we are twins,” Roxas whispered after a while. His head was resting on Ven’s shoulder, and Ven didn’t give any indication of wanting to let go.

“Yeah, me too.”

“You know, I’ve always wanted to have siblings,” Roxas said, ending the hug with Ventus and lying back on his bed. “I’m kinda jealous, you at least have Terra and Aqua.”

Ventus lied on the bed next to Roxas. “Yeah, with them I never felt lonely. Even if they treat me like a child sometimes and I wish they would stop that,” he explained, making Roxas giggle lightly.

“I bet they do that because they love you and would never want to see you hurting,” noted Roxas turning his face to meet Ven’s eyes.

“Probably… I think they’ve gotten worse at this since when dad passed away. It’s like they’re trying to fit my parents’ role more than my siblings sometimes…” Ven told Roxas, whose heart missed a beat when he got reminded of what the other had been through.

“I’m sorry about your dad…”

Ventus shook his head. “Don’t be,” he said, smiling sadly at the thought of his father, “he’s always with me, in my heart,” he explained, patting his chest.

Roxas nodded. “Ven,” he called.

“Mhm?”

“You’re so strong… I really admire you.”

Ventus had to repeat the words he had just heard in his head a couple of times before making sense of them. ‘Strong’ was a word he would never use to describe himself, so it was weird to hear Roxas use it for him. He even found it hard to believe that Roxas admired him… what was there to admire about him? Ventus couldn’t think of anything.

“What makes you think that?” Ventus questioned sincerely. He couldn’t wrap his mind around what Roxas had just said.

“You’ve gone through so much, but you always have a smile on your face and look at the positive of everything.”

“If you think so…” said Ventus, unconvinced.

“Do you remember when my social worker told me that my bio mom didn’t want to have anything to do with me?” Ventus nodded, confused by the sudden change of topic. “I was devastated when she told me that… and I thought I expected a rejection,” Roxas admitted, his eyes turning watery at the memory. “I was so scared to tell you, because I expected you to be really hurt since she’s probably your bio mom as well.” Ventus nodded again, to let Roxas know he was listening. “Instead, you tried to comfort me and tried to stay hopeful for both of us.”

“I was sad when you told me that,” Ventus explained, trying to recall the memory. “But if I have to be completely honest, it didn’t hurt as much as I expected… it wasn’t really a surprise for me,” Ventus admitted.

“Why?”

“It’s just… I- uhm...” Ven kept stumbling on his words, not sure how to explain to the other how he felt. He bit the inside of his cheek, trying to stop the words to come out.

“What is it?” urged Roxas again, turning his face towards Ven, wanting to hear what Ventus was thinking.

“I just feel like it makes sense,” he blurted out, already regretting what he was going to say, but he couldn’t stop the flow of words escaping from his mouth. “There’s nothing good or interesting about myself, so it’s just normal that not even my mother would want to have anything to do with me. No one really likes me anyway,” he explained, trying his hardest to avoid the other’s eyes.

“Why would you say something like that?” questioned Roxas, bringing himself in a sitting position to get a better look at Ven, but the other just turned even more to avoid his gaze.

“It’s just the truth,” Ventus sobbed, not even trying to stop the stream of tears that were rolling down his cheeks.

“But it’s not the truth, Ven,” Roxas tried to reason with him. He didn’t think he was particularly good at comforting people, but he hated seeing Ven like that. “We were talking not too long ago about how much Terra, Aqua, and your dad love you.”

“But they have to, because they’re my family.”

“You know that not all families love each other…” Roxas tried to explain. “Even then, Aqua is not really in your family, but she still considers you her little brother. She loves you, all of them do.”

Ventus kept sobbing and Roxas tried to caress his back, hoping of bringing some form of comfort. “I too, I love you,” Roxas added quietly, keeping rubbing Ventus’ back, who choked back a sob.

“I never really had any friends besides my family. Aqua was Terra’s friend, that’s how I know her. It didn’t matter how much I tried to socialise at school or dance class… even at the playground! Sometimes I managed to talk with some other children, only to never hear from them ever again.” Ventus explained. “That’s why I feel like I’m never good enough, it doesn’t matter how much I try, no one would ever choose me if they have a choice,” he sobbed into the pillow. Roxas was surprised by what Ven was trying to say, since he seemed someone kind and lovable. It was hard for him to understand how people wouldn’t want to be friends with him.

“But honestly, that’s not true.” Ven raised his gaze to look at Roxas. “You have at least one. You have me.” He stated matter-of-factly. “We are friends, aren’t we?” Roxas asked, meeting Ventus’ eyes with his own.

When their eyes met Ven felt his eyes water and he tried his best to shake off the tears, even if some still fell on his cheek. “Yes,” he nodded, wiping the tears with his sleeve, “we are friends,” he added with a smile.

“And I dare you to call Sora and convince him you are not friends after spending all day together yesterday,” Roxas joked, observing as Ventus’ smile became a little wider. “And honestly, if the people you know don’t want to be friends with someone as bright, nice, and positive as you are, it’s their loss, not yours,” Roxas added, looking at him seriously in the eyes.

“You’re right. I’m sorry Roxas, I don’t know what got into me,” Ventus said after some minutes of silence, drying his tears with his wrist.

“It’s okay, Ven. Maybe we’re tired, that’s why we are so emotional tonight.”

“That could be it,” Ventus smiled, stifling a laugh, “maybe we should go back to sleep.”

“Yes, tomorrow we’re going to the beach! Hopefully, for real this time,” Roxas commented as Ventus got up from the air mattress and went back on his bed.

“Yes, let’s hope so,” Ventus said before turning off the light and making the room go back to the darkness.

“Roxas?” Ventus called, only seconds after he turned off the light.

“What?”

“I love you too.”

“Yes, I know.” Even if in the darkness he couldn’t see him, he could hear the smile in Roxas’ voice. “Goodnight, Ven.”

“Goodnight, Roxas.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally, chapter 8 is here too!   
> At first, I was worried the last part of the chapter was getting too sad and this is not meant to be a sad story at all, but I think it was really important for them to have this conversation. But no worries, chapter 9 and 10 are definitely going to be more cheerful :)  
> Also fun fact! The part where they look together at the photo album was one of the first parts I wrote for this fic, more than a year ago. For some reasons, it was one of the first scenes I had in mind when I first started thinking about this fic lol  
> Anyway, I really hope you liked the new chapter! I want to thank all the people reading and/or leaving a comment/kudos/bookmark. It all means a lot to me and I hope I can make your day just a little brighter with this fic :)


	9. Finally at the beach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roxas and Ventus can finally go to the beach with their friends. When they come home there is something waiting for them...

“We finally go to the beach!” was the first thing Xion said, as soon as she hopped on Roxas’ car, not even bothering to say ‘hi’ to the two guys. Naminé followed Xion into the car, greeting the two with a warm smile to which they responded with a smile just as warm. They had to wake up early that morning because the beach was over an hour-long drive from Twilight Town, but it was worth it to spend an amazing day together.

“Yeah, finally!” Roxas agreed, looking at the blue sky. There were no clouds to see and, besides some puddle here and there, no one would have even been able to guess the previous day has been raining all day long. He turned on the car so that they could finally go to the beach. Hayner, Pence and Olette would go there on their own, since there was no way all of them could fit in only one car.

“I’ve been waiting all week for today,” Xion said, adjusting in her seat. “Naminé and I came prepared, we bought a lot of snacks for today.” She stressed her point, opening her backpack and pulling out a plastic bag full of every type of snacks. Ventus looked with interest as the two girls showed them all the snacks they bought; there were crackers, chocolate milk almonds, candy bars, chocolate chip cookies, some fruits, and the list could go on. Ventus could already feel his mouth salivate at the sight of the food.

“Uh… do you know we are going to be there only for a day, right?”

Naminé giggled at Roxas’ question, while Xion kicked lightly the back of his seat with her knee. “Don’t ruin the fun.”

“Ouch, Xion! Don’t do that, I’m driving!”

“I didn’t even touch you! Don’t be overdramatic!” she said as her defence, laughing at the face Roxas made that she saw reflected in the rear-view mirror.

“Do you like the beach, Ven?” asked Naminé, changing the topic of the conversation.

Ventus tried to turn towards her, even if he really couldn’t without undoing his seatbelt, since the blonde girl was sitting behind him.

“I love the beach, even if I don’t go there often.”

“Really?” asked Xion surprised, chiming in the conversation. “We go there every year, it’s like a tradition at this point. It’s becoming so difficult to find the time to be all together, that this day is always really special.”

Ventus couldn’t really relate to the sentiment, since he didn’t have a group of friends he didn’t see often. He guessed that was probably the bright side of having friends that were basically his family; he spent almost every day with them.

He nodded. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

“Say, Ven, are you good at beach volley?” asked Xion with a playful smile on her face.

“I played it sometimes during high school,” Ventus answered. He had always been an athletic person, and he was pretty good when he played during PE classes.

“That’s good, because you totally should be on my team today.”

Ventus looked at her with an interrogative look, but before he could think of an answer, Roxas interjected.

“What? No, Ven should be with me!” Roxas exclaimed immediately after he processed what Xion said.

“Well, I asked him first!”

“Yes, but I think it would be fun to be in the same team, right Ven?”

Ventus couldn’t stop staring at Roxas and Xion in surprise. It was weird to see two people fighting to have him on their team. He didn’t even fully understand what they were talking about. But he was pleased by it, nonetheless. The only downside was that now Roxas and Xion stared expectantly at him, waiting for an answer, and he would have to choose in which team he would rather be. On one hand, he agreed with Roxas that it would be fun to be on the same team for once; on the other hand, Xion asked him to be in her team first. He didn’t know who to choose. Naminé noticed his unsureness and tried to help him.

“Maybe you should play rock, paper and scissors and Ven can go in the winner’s team?” she proposed looking at Ventus, who nodded at the idea. He preferred doing it that way than having to choose.

Xion and Roxas agreed to the idea. They played rock, paper, scissors as they were waiting for a traffic light to become green. Roxas ended up playing paper and Xion rock, resulting in Roxas’ win and Xion sighing in defeat.

“Yes! We’re going to dominate, Ven!”

“Do you mind explaining what all that was about?” Ventus asked once the teams were sorted out. Xion stared back at him, her eyes wide and her mouth open in surprise.

“Wait, Roxas didn’t tell you?”

Ventus looked at Roxas again before shaking his head. He didn’t remember him talking about any match during the previous days.

“Basically, it’s a match we do every year when we go to the beach. It’s practically become part of our tradition,” Roxas explained.

“We change teams every year to mix things up. Last year, Roxas and I were in the same team, but lost to Hayner and Olette,” Xion explained with a groan.

“They were just lucky though, Xion and I usually win when we are together.”

“Yeah, we are great when we’re on the same team,” Xion agreed with him.

“What about you, Naminé? You don’t play?” Ventus asked, turning towards the blonde girl.

She shook her head. “I prefer to cheer for them from the sidelines. They take this match very seriously, and I don’t have an athletic bone in my body,” she explained with a smile, causing Ventus to giggle.

\---

After an over an hour’s drive, they finally got to the beach. It was quite large, and the location was beautiful. On the side where the beach wasn’t bathed from the sea, it was surrounded by the mountains, creating a wonderful view, no matter what point one looked at. Many people were lying on deck chairs sunbathing, some children were busy playing with the sand, and someone was already bathing in the sea.

The group of friends were looking around, trying to spot Hayner, Pence and Olette who had texted them to let them know they got to the beach before they did. After some minutes spent looking around in search of their friends, Naminé spotted Pence who was waving at them from afar to let them see where he, Olette and Hayner had taken their places on the beach. They had already changed into their swimsuits and placed their towels on the sand.

Not even halfway towards the group of friends, Xion had already shouted to Hayner that they were going to be in the same team for the match. Ventus could tell that all of them took their friendly annual beach volley tournament really seriously. At that point, Ven could only hope to not disappoint Roxas.

“Are you ready to lose again this year?” Hayner said to Roxas, as soon as he got closer to the towel, gaining a shrug from Roxas as they fist-bumped each other as a greeting.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t be so sure,” he said before sitting on the towel next to Olette and greeting her with a small hug.

“We’ll see,” she laughed, before she got up to greet the girls and Ventus as well. Roxas and Pence exchanged a small wave from across the towel.

Ventus hadn’t even had the time to get ready, when Hayner challenged them to a race. The first one to reach the water would win. Ventus looked with a smile as Hayner and Roxas were fighting to arrive first; a race which was eventually won by Hayner, who openly cheated by pushing Roxas away and making him lose the little advantage he had. Olette reprimanded Hayner for all the mess he was causing, but it didn’t stop her from smiling and join her friends into the water.

Ventus reached them on the seashore. He lightly flinched at the feeling of the cold water wetting his feet and ankles. It was really hot outside, so he wasn’t expecting the water to be so cold. When Roxas noticed Ventus had not joined them into the water yet, he called for him, convincing Ventus to pull through the cold water to reach them. Xion helped him, if we can call it ‘help’, splashing some water over him, causing him to shiver and finally convincing him to immerse in the water, but not before taking revenge on the girl and splashing her with some water as well, causing her to giggle. That was the start of a splash war, all the friends taking part in it. Ventus was worried that, since it was the first time he took part in a tradition he was not part of, he would feel out of place or left out, but all his worries faded away almost immediately. As he was there, splashing water with Roxas and his friends, he felt like he had always been part of this group.

When they got tired of being into the water, they got back to the towels to dry up and then everyone decided to do more relaxing activities. Naminé and Xion walked on the seashore in search of seashells, while Hayner, Pence and Olette started building a sandcastle together. Ventus looked in amazement at what the trio was building. It was hard to believe how the physics of their sandcastle worked, but as it was forming under his eyes, he couldn’t help being amazed by their creation.

Roxas noticed the wonder painted on Ventus’ face and suggested they could try to build one together too, and Ventus could only agree with eagerness.

Roxas and Ventus realized soon that their sandcastle building skills were not up to par with their friends’. After the third time their sandcastle had fallen part, Pence and Olette took pity on them and tried to help them build it again. Even then, what they built could hardly be called a castle. By comparison, while Hayner, Pence and Olette’s creation actually looked like a castle, Roxas and Ventus’ looked like a castle after a war had occurred and half the building had been destroyed.

It didn’t matter though, because they would never forget the fun they had while building it, their laughter every time their attempts failed, and their happiness when for the first time their sand sculpture managed to not fall apart. They sat proudly next to their castle when Pence offered to take a picture with his inseparable camera.

After they finished taking pictures, Roxas noticed that Xion and Naminé were coming back to the towels and he ran towards them. Ventus noted they were holding something in their hands and reached them to find out what it was. As he got closer, he realized they were holding seashells. Their hands were so full, he was surprised they managed to not drop any on their way back.

As soon as they reached the towels, Naminé and Xion dropped all the seashells on it and Ventus was amazed at the variety of seashells they found. Their shapes and their colors varied greatly from one another, from some that looked convoluted to others which had a flat look; some of them were coloured with pink and yellow shades, while others were more greyish.

“Wow, you found a ton this year,” Roxas smiled, picking one seashell in his hand and instinctively bringing it to his ear.

“Do you hear the ocean?” asked Xion, watching her friend who nodded in response.

“Wait, you can hear the ocean?” Ventus asked in astonishment. All three of them nodded, and Xion picked up another seashell and gave it to him, telling him to try. Ventus brought it to his ear and was surprised that he could actually hear the sound of the waves through the shell. “Wow! You really can hear it,” was all he could say.

“Right?” asked Xion in return, “we love picking up seashells and hear the waves through them.”

When Ventus tried to give back the seashell, Xion shook her head. “You can keep it,” she said.

Ventus looked at her in shock. “Are you sure?”

Xion nodded. “We always pick up some seashells for everyone, as a memento for the day,” she explained, before proceeding to stand up and give a seashell to each of her friends. Ventus nodded in understanding, taking a better look at the seashell he was gifted. It had a pinkish look on its shell, and it looked really pretty.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Naminé exclaimed with a jolt, making two pairs of eyes turn towards her. The girl got up from the towel and ran towards her backpack to pick it up. When she came back, she started rummaging through her backpack in the search of something under the curious stares of Roxas and Ventus. Eventually, she extracted a small frame and, before he could understand what it was, Naminé extended it to Ventus, who hesitated for a moment before taking it in his hands. It was a frame of the drawing Naminé showed him before the ice show, with the difference that this time the drawing was colored and there was no sign of the sketch lines that were there just a few days before.

“It’s perfect,” Ventus commented in amazement, “you are a skilled artist!”

Naminé smiled, slightly lowering her head to hide her blush from the compliment Ventus gave her. “It’s for you,” she explained to Ventus, who watched her with wide eyes. “You told me you liked it the other day, and I figured you’d like to have it as a memory of that moment.”

Ventus was touched by the gesture. He wasn’t expecting any gifts, and he was at a loss of words for some moments, before a smile lighted his features. “Thank you, Naminé.”

“What is it?” Roxas said, peaking from behind Ventus’ shoulders, trying to see the drawing. Ventus gave the drawing to him, so he could take a better look at it. “Is it when Ven and I met?” he asked, raising his eyes towards Naminé, who nodded in response. “Wow, Nam, it’s beautiful!” he said, before giving the drawing back to Ventus.

“Don’t worry, I will make one for you too,” she said smiling at him, “so you can both have the memory.” He smiled warmly at her in return for her words.

\---

After lunch, they spent some time just hanging out on the towels, as they were digesting all the food they ate. Xion and Naminé proved to be right, their snacks ended up being appreciated by their friends.

While Roxas was busy in an animated conversation with Hayner and Xion, and Pence was teaching Naminé how to use his camera, Ventus found himself engaged in a conversation with Olette. When he saw her head hidden behind a book’s cover, he couldn’t help himself from asking about it. He found out that she was a bookworm like he was, and they ended up talking about their favorite books and exchanging book recommendation. As Ventus took note of the books Olette suggested, hoping to give a read to their plot once he would be home, Hayner interrupted all their conversations to announce that it was time for their beach volley match.

It was like that that they found themselves at the beach volleyball net, that they promptly took as soon as it wasn’t occupied by other people. Naminé and Pence preferred to cheer for them from the sidelines, while Olette announced that she was going to be the referee for their match. Ventus instinctively looked for Roxas’ eyes, who looked back at him and nodded as they took one side of the field, forming one team as they decided that morning. Hayner and Xion formed the other team.

“Are you ready to lose?” Hayner asked defiantly.

“Ven and I are going to win,” Roxas stated, a competitive flame burning in his eyes. Ventus nodded in agreement.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Xion said, dribbling the ball in her hands.

“Losers will have to buy ice creams for everyone.”

“Keep your munny ready then,” Roxas answered, as they got in position for their match.

Xion was the first one to make a dunk, making the match officially start. Ventus was able to catch the ball before it could touch the ground and passed it to Roxas, who sent it on the opposite court, scoring a point for their team. Ventus cheered for the point they scored, exchanging a high five with Roxas. Pence, Naminé and Olette cheered for them, but didn’t stop encouraging the other team as well.

Hayner and Xion didn’t give up that easily, though. They were both athletic and determined to win. While Xion was pretty agile and able to catch the ball before it could touch the ground most of the time, Hayner’s dunks were really powerful, at the point that Ventus’ wrists hurt when he caught the ball Hayner shot.

Roxas and he were no less. Despite being their first time playing beach volley together, their teamwork operated really well, at the point where Ven felt like they played together a million times already. He could tell from a glance what Roxas was going to do, and it wasn’t hard for them to coordinate their actions so that one of them would catch the ball and the other would dunk it in the opposite court, ending up scoring lots of points. Hayner and Xion were not going to give them an easy win though, so their match ended up being a challenging one. Olette, Pence and Naminé cheered for each of them from the sidelines, making bets on who was going to win, but it was hard to predict the winning team.

Their match ended when Olette, who was keeping track of the scores, declared Roxas and Ventus the winning team. Hayner and Xion groaned simultaneously in defeat, collapsing on the sand, while the two blonds were over the moon for the win and exchanged a powerful high five. They were both surprised by the sound of a click, and realized a few seconds later that Pence used his camera to immortalize the moment.

After they finished their matches and Roxas and Ventus were declared the winners, the group of friends went to the ice cream shop near the beach to buy themselves some ice cream. Since Xion and Hayner lost their match, they had to honour their promise and buy ice cream for everyone.

On their way there, Ventus found out that sea salt ice cream was the best flavour of ice cream ever created and the perfect way to end a fun day with friends. Or at least that’s what Roxas said. As they were walking to the ice cream shop, Roxas kept talking about how good this ice cream was and how he couldn’t believe Ven had lived his entire life without even trying it. Considering that everyone bought it and how well Roxas was talking about it, Ventus guessed that that particular flavour of ice cream must have been great and he looked forward to trying it.

When he took the popsicle Xion offered him, Ventus looked in doubt at its light blue color and wondered if it really was better than strawberry ice cream, his favourite. Ventus took a brief look at Roxas and watched in horror as his friend bit right into the popsicle. How could he even do that without his teeth freezing?

Maybe he was staring at Roxas too hard, because the blond in question turned towards him with an interrogative glance and took notice of the still intact popsicle in Ventus’ hands.

“Come on, try it. It may be a bit weird at first, but I promise it’s good,” Roxas encouraged as he watched Ven studying his ice cream as if he wanted to understand if it was poisonous or not.

Ven licked his ice cream carefully, and, at first, he only tasted salt. He grimaced, briefly wondering if Roxas was pranking him. Ventus thought that maybe Roxas was getting his revenge for the ketchup’s prank, but he only needed to wait for some moments before he tasted a sweet flavour in his mouth. He wasn’t expecting it. He never ate something like that.

“What do you think?” asked Roxas expectantly.

Ven took another lick, studying the ice cream’s taste another time. It was not bad, but he still preferred strawberry ice cream. “It’s… interesting?” Ventus answered, trying to find the right word to describe it, “I’ve never had something like this.”

“But it’s good, right?”

Ventus nodded, still looking at his ice cream in disbelief, wondering how something could taste like that. “It is,” he confirmed, “but strawberry is still my favourite.”

Roxas took a breath of relief at that, because Ventus’ first reaction made him worry he didn’t like it. “That’s okay, but you needed to try sea salt ice cream at least once in your life.”

Ventus nodded, taking another lick at his popsicle. The more he ate it, the more he liked its flavour.

As they were quietly eating their ice cream and watching the view, the sun slowly descended its way behind the mountains and the sky became progressively redder. While it happened in front of his eyes, Ven could only watch in amazement at the spectacle that was the sunset.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Roxas asked, not having missed Ventus’ amazed expression as he was watching the sky.

Ventus nodded in response. “I have never seen a sunset this beautiful,”

“No?”

Ventus shook his head. “You can’t really see the sunset from my home,” he explained, without turning his gaze away from the sky.

“I can’t imagine not being able to see the sunset every day,” Roxas said, playing with his finished ice cream stick in his hands.

“I’m sure going to miss it.”

“You’re going to see it again the next time you come here.”

Ventus smiled. “Yes, you’re right.”

The two fell in silence, as their friends’ laughter echoed in the air for a dumb joke Hayner said. Then Roxas broke the silence between them again.

“Did you have fun today?”

Ventus turned towards him in surprise. “Yes, of course! I enjoyed every moment!”

“See?” Roxas asked, poking Ventus’ cheek with his index finger, “my friends like you.”

Ventus instinctively backed away from Roxas’ finger, smiling. “Yes, I know. I like them too,” he said. Roxas smiled in response.

“Hey, you two! Are you going to spend the night here?”

They both jolted in their place before turning towards the voice who called them. Hayner and the others were waiting for them. They were all ready, their purses and backpacks in hands, only waiting for them. They were so distracted by the sunset and by their conversation that they didn’t even notice that everyone was already ready to go home. It was getting late after all, Ventus realized, as the red of the sky was progressively becoming more purple and the first stars of the night could be seen shining in the sky.

\---

When they opened the front door, they found Roxas’ mom waiting for them on the couch, with a book in her hands. She raised her gaze as soon as she heard the door open.

“You’re back,” she smiled as soon as she saw them, “how was your day?”

Roxas was surprised to see her still awake, since she was usually already asleep at that hour.

“It went great!” began Ventus, recounting enthusiastically everything that happened during the day, from them trying to build sandcastles together to seeing the sunset from the beach. The woman listened carefully, nodding at what Ventus was telling her and sometimes interrupting him to add a small comment. Roxas just listened to them, not taking part actively in the conversation but being captured by Ventus’ enthusiasm.

“Were you waiting for us?” Roxas asked when they finished talking about their day. His mother nodded, pointing at the kitchen with a small nod.

“There is something for you in the kitchen.”

Roxas and Ventus exchanged a curious look before heading to the kitchen where they found a white envelope laying on the table. As soon as their eyes lied on the envelope, they both stopped in their tracks to stare at it. Ventus could hear Roxas’ nervous breaths amid the sound of his own heartbeat.

“Is it from the laboratory?” asked Ven tentatively. Roxas only nodded, without looking away from the white envelope. “Should we open it?” suggested Ven, not diverting his eyes from Roxas, who nodded again, but neither of them moved a muscle. They both were looking forward to this moment and fearing it at the same time.

Roxas reached out for Ventus’ hand, and Ven didn’t hesitate to hold it back tightly. He could feel the other’s hand sweating lightly. They looked at each other in the eyes and after a deep breath, Roxas let go of Ventus’ hand and reached out for the envelope and slowly opened it under Ventus’ careful gaze.

Despite the talk they had the day before, he knew Roxas would be disappointed if they didn’t end up at least being related in some ways. And Ventus couldn’t lie to himself, he would be disappointed too if that was what was written inside the envelope.

As Roxas extracted the letter from inside the envelope, they could see that there were written the results of their DNA test. There was a lot of data neither of them understood, so they went straight to the conclusions.

“’Based on our analysis, it is practically proven that-‘” Roxas suddenly stopped reading out loud while he heard the other boy gasping quietly, as he was reading silently beside Roxas. They turned towards each other, Roxas’ eyes were watery while Ventus could feel his own tears streaming down his cheeks. He didn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around the other’s body, Roxas doing the same only a few seconds later. They didn’t know how long they stayed in that position, holding each other and quietly sobbing on each other’s shoulders, but they didn’t mind.

They were identical twins!

They were sure of it now, the test proved it, and they could forget all the ‘what if’ scenarios they fabricated in their heads.

As soon as they ended their hug, Roxas dried his tears and run outside the kitchen to tell the news to his mother, who was waiting for them in the living room. Ventus didn’t follow him, but immediately took his phone and searched for Terra’s number. He knew it would be late for him too, but he didn’t care, he needed to tell him and Aqua as soon as possible.

As he was waiting for his brother to answer the call, Ventus peaked in the living room through the door and smiled at seeing Roxas happily hugging his mother.

“Ven? Are you okay?” was the first thing Ventus’ heard from his phone and he had to resist the urge to roll his eyes, even if he knew Terra wouldn’t be able to see him, anyway.

“Yes, I just wanted to tell you the DNA results!”

“And? Wait, I’m gonna call Aqua, she’d want to know too,” Terra said, before calling Aqua’s name so loudly that Ventus had to move the phone away from his ear. After hearing some noises and some words exchanged between his siblings in the background, he finally heard Aqua’s voice through the phone.

“Ven? Do you have the results?”

“Yes! Roxas and I are identical twins!” he exclaimed, and he couldn’t even finish the sentence before he heard his siblings cheering for him and having to move the phone away from his ear again.

“We are so happy for you, Ven!” Aqua said, after she and Terra finally finished rejoicing with each other.

“Now that Roxas is family, you have to introduce him to us. Tell him to come here next time,” Terra said, making Ventus giggle lightly, “maybe we should celebrate Christmas together this year!”

Christmas? Ventus hoped to be able to see Roxas other times before Christmas, because he didn’t want to wait five months before seeing him again. His eyes wandered on the calendar hanging on the kitchen’s wall and fell on the next day’s date, where Roxas’ mother (Ventus could tell that was not Roxas’ handwriting) wrote the time of Ventus’ flight. She did so also on the day when Ventus got there.

The blond had to do a double-take: tomorrow evening would be the day when he had to go back home? Already?

“Ven? Are you listening?” He heard Aqua’s voice through the phone, which made him realize that no, he hadn’t been listening to anything his siblings were telling him.

“No, sorry! I have to go now, we’ll see each other tomorrow,” he said his goodbye, turning off the call before even listening to his siblings’ goodbye. He felt a little bad for ending the call in such a rash, but he would have plenty of time to tell them everything when he’d get back home. On the other hand, he had a limited time with Roxas and he preferred to spend it with him, rather than on the phone. He walked out from the kitchen and reached Roxas and his mother, who were talking, sitting on the couch. Roxas smiled at him when he noticed he had come out of the kitchen, but Ven didn’t even have the time to walk towards him before Roxas’ mom caught him in a hug, telling him she was happy that Roxas finally had ‘the brother he had always asked for’ and that she could officially call him family, now.

Ventus smiled, looking at Roxas, who smiled back. That’s right, he could finally say it without a doubt.

Roxas was his brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a fun chapter to write! I was looking forward to writing it, especially because of the last scene, and I’m happy I can finally share it with you. I hope you liked it :)


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